


WoF x CSRverse Backstories and Winglets

by SharkJack



Series: WoF X CSRverse AU [2]
Category: Bx: Execute (OFF Fangame), UNLOAD (OFF Fangame), Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: All of it is just horrible things happening, Angst, Blood and Gore, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child Death, DOUBLE THE ANGST, F/M, Head Injury, Hostage Situations, I don't know what else to add but I KNOW there's more, I'm going to die with my mistakes and bad grammar like a man., Kidnapping, Literally just the plague, M/M, Major Character Death (Technically), Multiple Off-Screen Deaths, Multiple On-Screen deaths, Murder, Mute Lepi (technically), Some sexual references but they're very short because I too am a minor, Stabbing, Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, The plague, Violence, accidental murder, canon-divergence??, technically a sickfic?, tell me what I missed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28100013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharkJack/pseuds/SharkJack
Summary: I was an idiot and now these are necessary to read.
Relationships: Carbine/Lepi (One-sided), Flo/Huaso (one-sided), Ghost Batter/Huaso (Implied), Ghost Batter/Sugar (Past)
Series: WoF X CSRverse AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2052042
Kudos: 4





	1. Huaso

**Author's Note:**

> Why am I posting this before chapter 2?
> 
> Because chapter 2 has a single reference at the end so
> 
> yeah

Seahorse, who later renamed himself Huaso, is Queen Coral’s first grandson.

Queen Coral is a lot older than one would think, as she was born naturally short and tends to keep herself in good shape, However her oldest son is 43 years old. Back when Queen Coral and King Gill had yet to have their first daughter, Orca, they still cared about their sons, not expecting that they would have 32 of them.

Huaso’s father is Prince Fin of the Seawings, his looks are similar to his ancestor, Fathom, with the bright shade of green inherited from both him and King Gill. Unlike Fathom and Fathom’s grandfather, he didn’t inherit animus magic.

Huaso’s mother was a Skywing guard looking for the Seawing’s summer palace, her name was Maroon. Under the newest Queen Scarlet’s rule, she looked along every grain of sand on every beach near the Seawing’s underwater palace, unaware of the young prince watching her from afar.

See, Fin was terrified of losing his family to the throne, he didn’t want to risk a daughter possibly killing her aunt or grandmother, and later for _her_ life to be cut short by one of her royal relatives. He wanted a chance to raise any child away from the ocean, to explore the world he couldn’t.

He’s heard rumors of hybrids, a faraway town where Skywings and Sandwings finally stopped fighting over a silly delta, with some falling in love. He’s heard surprising tales of these hybrids turning out to be perfectly fine, with some of them completely passing as one of their parents!

Well… This Skywing was often nearby, sometimes they would sit and talk while she complained about how well hidden their palace is, surely it wouldn't hurt to save his possible daughter(s) the trouble? Especially when he’s already fallen in love with Maroon.

It almost worked. She could only harbor a single egg, something common for Skywings apparently, as most siblings are different ages. However, there was something odd about the egg. It was… Tiny, pale red and vibrant green were fighting along the sides, swirling about. The worst part, Fin was especially scared by, was the fact that he could _hear the egg sloshing when it rolled… During Huaso’s hatching._

Maroon didn’t seem concerned until Fin explained that it wasn’t normal for seawing eggs, they didn’t have normal water inside the egg when they’re supposed to hatch, as it’s still possible for them to be hatched on land if needed. She suggested that it wasn’t kept warm enough because Fin was scared of burning the egg with Maroon’s fire, but before she could cough anything up, he hatched.

He was underdeveloped. There weren’t any scales, and his veins were visible through his skin. He could only get a bit of his egg broken before he got trapped in it. The egg rolled over, pouring the excess water over his gills in the wrong way. Maroon was quick to save him, breaking the rest of the egg and holding Huaso in a single palm.

“What in the world happened to him?” Huaso started crying out from the heat her scales radiated, his skin was so sensitive, it felt like he was being burned alive. Maroon has yet to realize “I thought the egg would be female because of the size, I really thought we’d be lucky and have perfectly healthy offspring… But he’s… He’s so small, look-” She gently nudges one of Huaso’s wings to spread out, showing some torn off membrane between the spines “He cut himself on the egg shell! But he was _overdue!_ How did he lose so much when he had so much time?”

Fin inches closer and takes Huaso into his claws, the cooler scales made the dragonet stop screaming. Fin shakes his head and looks up at the moons through the opening of their cave “Perhaps… He couldn’t. Think about it, love… I live in the deepest parts of the ocean, I have glowing scales, webbed claws, fins, gills, and no fire. You’re the exact opposite. You live high in the mountains, you have long limbs and claws, your scales are flat against your entire body, you have spikes, and some of the hottest fire of all the tribes!”

Huaso nudges one of his father’s claws to poke at the webbing between, almost proving Fin’s point even if he couldn’t understand them yet. The couple lay down with their new dragonet hidden under their wings, watching with wide eyes as Huaso wandered about every rock and bump, making him scream and yelp in pain, before his exhaustion finally put him to sleep.

The next morning, Skywing guards stormed into the cave, with Queen Scarlet in tow. She tells them about a new law they’ve put in place. Any deformed dragonets would be terminated, which include the hybrid they were expecting. However, she wasn’t expecting the dragonet to be on the edge of death already. He got so cold the night before, he forced himself to lay by his mother, but the heat gave him a fever, and without his scales and with his weak skin, it’s likely he’s already caught something from one of his parents. No one’s ever met a dragon like Huaso before, so it’s possibly they’re all carrying something, waiting for the weakest immune system to pick on.

Queen Scarlet picks up the dragonet by his tail, the ruler grins from ear to ear. The guards hold Fin and Maroon back, as they scream for the safety of their child.

“My oh my what do we have here? I’m guessing it didn’t go well? Did the poor thing die and you decided to adopt a lizard to replace it?” Huaso’s swinging wildly, yelling and trying to bite Scarlet’s claws, but he can’t reach her. She laughs and forces Huaso to look at his parents.

“Now, he could have passed as a skywing if he had a couple of scales! But it wouldn’t matter, as long as we knew the precious Prince was with you, we would have stormed in anyhow! We were just waiting for the perfect moment!”

The guards look between Maroon and Huaso, wondering what Scarlet was talking about. One muttered to the other “Maybe she’s colorblind-” “WHAT?!” Of course, Skywing hearing is near perfect, as long as they weren’t compared to Sandwings.

The poor guard was quick to defend herself “I-I don’t mean to be rude! You’re perfect in every way, Queen Scarlet! I’m just saying that… Well… It’s clear that the dragonet has green glowscales? So he can’t really pass at _all_ …”

Scarlet swiftly lifts Huaso up to her eyes, she was right, he does have green glowscales. In fact, he also has some bright red scales, completely saturated compared to the anger flashing of his seawing scales. She could have sworn he was completely pale, scaleless, with nearly transparent skin?

“Can ONE OF YOU explain to me why this little brat decided to get healthy?”

“My Queen, I’m not sure how to say it but… I think he made himself grow scales?”

There’s silence for about 10 seconds, then the queen bursts out laughing “WHAT? LIKE WITH ANIMUS MAGIC? MY ANCESTORS PERSONALLY MADE SURE THERE WERE NONE LEFT IN THE SKYWING KINGDOM, AND THE SEAWINGS GOT RID OF THEIRS AFTER ALBATROSS SCARED THEM TO DE- **OW!** ” Huaso managed to reach Scarlet, actually he’s even grown a bit. He wriggles out of the queen's claws and clumsily glides to the cave floor, running to stand between his parents.

Scarlet lets out a roar and orders her guards to kill the dragonet. Maroon blasts her guard in the face and leaps to sit in front of Scarlet “My Queen! Please have mercy on the poor soul! If you must, imprison me! And please, don’t start a war with the seawings! Seahorse doesn’t apply to your laws because he is the son of Prince Fin, so he _has_ to belong to the seawing kingdom!”

The queen considers this, then smiles “Oh, poor poor Maroon, imprisonment won’t be enough for your betrayal, and I know you’ll just make my arena boring… So I’ll just have a public execution for you!”

“Maroon, don’t! We can still escape!”

“SHUT IT, WATER BREATHER!”

Maroon doesn’t hesitate. “I accept this fate. As long as you leave my husband and son alone, and you keep to your word.”

“Fine. I’ll think about it. For now, they’re banished from my kingdom. If I ever see either of them cross my borders, I won’t hesitate to tear their heads off their bodies.”

“I… I’ll take it…” Maroon turns to Fin “Please do the smart thing and keep him safe. I know you want him to travel the word, but maybe keep the mountains off limits for him? Figure out how he grew his scales in seconds, raise him smart and tough… I love you, Fin, Seahorse.”

That was the last Huaso ever saw of his mother, or even heard of her. They’ve known each other for 13 hours, yet she still did something that Huaso could never repay her for. His large red eyes would look back at the cave as his father carried him to the southwest oceans, confused, only understanding one sentence in Dragon at this point of his life.

“I love you.”

When he realized the meaning of those words, he swore to himself that he would keep them sacred for the rest of his life.

\--

When he was a year old, he was finally old enough to learn the story of Albatross. Huaso’s known he had animus magic since he reinforced his own skin a couple of months back, Fin’s known since Huaso’s hatching day yesterday, when he performed a quick trick to celebrate. He fixed Fin’s bad wing ever since he was forced to crash into a sharp coral reef because of some rude whales.

The look on his father’s face wasn’t one he was expecting, but Fin wouldn’t let Huaso’s first hatching day go to waste, so it’s only now that he’s telling Huaso everything.

“So… You’re saying I have all of these cool powers… And I can’t even use them?!”

“Shh keep your voice down, if mother realizes there’s an animus among us, she won’t hesitate to... Abandon you, I’m sure you want to keep living in a nice castle, right?”

They’ve been able to work their way back into the Summer Palace. Queen Coral, noticing Huaso was male instead of female, was able to let the hybrid live, as long as he wasn’t a threat to the throne. Of course, everyone else still treated him differently, but he’s learned not to care, they’d never do anything for him like his mother did, so why should he even bother with getting to know them?

Fin goes on “Besides, the more you use your powers, the more your soul is lost! And I’d rather keep you safe and... _Yourself,_ okay? Can you promise that you won’t use your powers unless it’s an absolute last resort to keep yourself alive?”

“But what about other-”

“No. Only yourself. They’re your powers, and it’ll be _your life_ at risk, _especially_ if anyone ever learned about it! Now please promise me that…”

“... Okay, I promise.”

“Thank you, Seahorse.” Fin pulls Huaso into a hug with his wings, then edges him to the water. “Now go play, maybe your next hatching day won’t be so empty if you make a few friends!"

Huaso wasn’t sure about that, while dragons were fine with walking by him on land, everyone finds the nearest current to get away when he’s in water. He wants to know why, and he probably can if he just enchanted something to tell him their secrets, but he made a promise to his father, and he isn’t one for breaking promises.

\--

As it turns out, Huaso’s banished from two kingdoms now. Over the year, he’s been collecting airborne diseases that wouldn’t normally apply to the Seawings, but his Skywing half were at great risk. Of course, when they’ve found a host to bring into the water, they’ve found a new way to spread.

Thankfully, because they weren’t designed for the ocean, they couldn’t get anywhere without dying, leaving Huaso as the sole source of it all. But with his father’s encouragement to socialize him, they were still able to do some terrible damage.

Queen Coral’s family had been affected by it, and more importantly, Coral herself caught a nasty virus that required her to stay in the Summer Palace until it passed. This was enough to banish Huaso. Her exact words were “Seahorse, as the Queen of all Seawings, I demand that you leave these oceans for as long as you live, stay away from our palaces and spread your Pestilence elsewhere!”

The poor dragonet had no clue where to go, he doesn’t have a map, he’s not allowed in the ocean anymore, he apparently can’t go to any mountains, and when he looked at his father for his input, at least hoping he’d stay by Huaso’s side… His father whispered “I’m sorry, Seahorse… I have to stay loyal to my queen. If I could leave, I would have already explored the world with you.”

But no one was stopping him, he can’t take the throne, nor can his only offspring. His own mother didn’t seem to care about her children anymore, now that she can’t try for a daughter during her sickness, and her oldest son has brought it to her, indirectly.

Little Huaso didn’t understand, his mother betrayed her queen to keep him alive, and Fin was so determined that Huaso focuses on his own survival, but now he won’t help him because he doesn’t want to leave the queen that doesn’t care about him at all!

The seawings attending Coral looked nervously at Huaso, one of them slowly approaching him when he stared holes into the floor. He said “You’re going to be alright out there, you don’t have to cry-” How weak did he think Huaso was?

Huaso screams out, hopping to stand and flaring his wings. After he yells his voice raw, he flashes in Aquatic.

“Not weak, squid brains! Won’t cry! I live and make friends! Friends don’t hate me for sick!” He knows his aquatic is terrible, but how was he supposed to know Seawings need 180 glowscales to communicate properly? Not like he can change his scales now, it was hard enough to make them as natural as possible by mashing the looks of his parents together.

He turns and flies away, of course no one stops him. He keeps flying higher and higher until he’s too tired to climb. From here, he can find the rest of Pyrrhia waiting for him, but where would be the best place to survive?

The Mud Kingdom seems nice, it was close enough where he could glide onto an island and make his way down the Pyrrhia’s tail to reach it.

\--

The next 6 years served well for Huaso. Because of the Mudwing’s naturally strong immune system, Huaso didn’t get anyone sick, not unless they took a few risks and managed to consume a part of him. He figured out through a dragonet, about 2 years younger than him, who curiously licked one of the glowscales on his tail, playing around with the sail until she started having a coughing fit. Huaso was terrified for the rest of the day, deciding to stay in his lonely den, hoping Queen Moorhen wouldn’t kick him out. However, the next day, the same dragonet hopped into his den to say she was already better, and her Bigwings urged her to apologize for scaring him away.

“I… It’s alright… Try not t’ do that again though.”

She gasps and leaped closer to him “Yer voice! You’re getting our accent!”

“Really? Ah guess ah am. Makes sense, as ah spent most of my life here.”

Huaso was very relieved, he picked the right place to stay, where even if the worse happens they would recover quickly and forgive him.

For a while, at least.

When Queen Oasis of the sandwings died, the news spread quickly. Three sisters were fighting for the throne, as none of them killed the queen, she died by scavengers stealing her treasure. There’s two scavenger dens near the Mud Kingdom. Actually, visiting those two dens is how Huaso got his new name. It didn’t take long for him to notice how smart the scavengers were, and he managed to pick up a bit of their language, and how the syllables directly translated to Dragon.

It means something like “Skilled horseman.” Huaso made up a spelling in his head to make it pronounceable in Dragon, similar to how it’s said in Scavenger, but not as squeaky. (Rrgh Argh-Then a quick hiss- Oh.)

His interest in the scavengers turned into an interest for blacksmithing, when he noticed how neat their little weapons and armor were. With the help of a Mudwing friend, thankfully a tribe with fire, he was able to hone his skills making spears and figurines of historic dragons.

Soon, he would be able to make a variety of objects, many of them he gave away to those who needed them. Everyone seemed to appreciate his skills, and Huaso was proud of his work, so was Princess Burn’s army.

Two more years passed, and the war has officially reached his doorstep. Burn made an alliance with the Skywings and Mudwings (Although throughout the war, the Mudwings would flip flop between princesses.) Princess Blister has an alliance with the Seawings, and Princess Blaze was with the Icewings. Burn and Blister have tried getting the elusive Nightwing tribe to join their side of the war, but they refused to come out of hiding.

Meanwhile, Princess Burn (Huaso _refused_ to call her Queen, he wouldn’t call anyone Queen unless he’s seen their worth.) would often visit the two kingdoms, noticing that her Mudwings were going into battles with better armor and weapons than the Icewings they often went up against. She demanded to see who made them.

Huaso was able to prepare for her visit, passing as a Mudwing once he drenched himself in the mud and painted his scales with the dark ashes of his work. Thanks to his Seawing side, he matched the overall shape, and if Burn wouldn’t believe he was a full Mudwing, she’s still allied with his Skywing side, hopefully that’ll get him by.

Burn herself burst into his new workshop, scowling at the smell of ash. Her scorpion tail was swaying side to side, disregarding everything around it. She cleared her throat.

“Who is the blacksmith aiding my soldiers?”

The usual patrons gestured to a small tunnel, next to it was a sign saying “Blacksmith’s personal den/workshop, do not enter unless permitted or it’s an emergency.” Burn strides to the tunnel and knocks next to it, watching as Huaso cautiously steps out.

“Well howdy there, are ya the princess who-”

“Queen. You will refer to me as Queen Burn, I will not tolerate anything else. Now, why are you covered in mud when you have a Queen to serve?”

“Ah wasn’t expectin’ yer visit, Queen Burn. Ah was havin’ a relaxing mud bath after working all night, didn’t have time t’ clean myself off.”

“Then go and make yourself proper.”

“Now- now- now hold on!” Huaso sits by the exit of his tunnel, refusing to move. “Mah memory gits spotty, if ah go clean up now, ah’ll forget you’re here! Let’s do our business now, not like ya won’t get into some mud as soon as ya leave.”

She growls and glares her pure black eyes at him. Her guards manage to convince her to be quick about it. “Very well, I need to lead my army into the Sea Kingdom, so I want custom armor that won’t be so heavy that they can’t swim if they’re dragged down. We’re planning on finally tracking down their Summer palace and destroying it.”

Huaso’s eyes widen, the summer palace? Would they be able to expect her? Would they be able to flee quick enough to get everyone to the Deep palace? Worse yet, should Huaso still care about them? He hasn’t seen them since he was a little dragonet, his father left him to die alone, and he’s already caused them harm, so why is he worried about Burn finding them?

“EXCUSE me, blacksmith. Did you go braindead? Agree to my commission, or I’ll drop you with my other interesting subjects, your Skywing-like wings and claws will fit perfectly.”

That reminds Huaso about his chest and tail, he can’t exactly hide his sails! Thankfully, because of how slowly the mud drips off of him, no one’s noticed the sail on his chest, and his tail is now hidden away behind his wings, curling into itself.

“Ah’m terribly sorry about that, ah was considerin’ the types of materials ah’d need. Ah’ll do it, as long as yer willin’ to pay me fer my troubles. This is a big order, you know! Why, ah don’t even know how many dragons yer takin’ with ya!”

That was able to get Burn off his back about his weird looks. After some more discussion, she bids a nasty farewell and complains about the Mud Kingdom the entire way out.

\--

Huaso decided he’s not going to betray his family, he just can’t be that kind of dragon. Burn’s already given him the right amount and kind of materials he needed, so how is he supposed to help the Seawings stay hidden?

A thought flashes across Huaso’s head, quite literally as he flashed “What” to himself in Aquatic.

“No, no… Ah can’t decide t’ help them, and break his promise at t’ same time…” Can father really blame him for keeping himself alive by agreeing with Burn, when he was so determined to make sure Huaso keeps himself alive, even when it means he has to help take them down? Would he even care? He didn’t care when Huaso was banished, when it was his father’s fault Huaso got so sick.

Would Huaso be just as bad as him if he made the entire tribe suffer, all because he spites his father? Maybe it’s time to break that promise…

\--

“No matter how long they search, how determined they are, they will never find the Summer palace so long as they’re wearing this armor.”

\--

Princess Burn was back the week after she got the armor.

“It protected us when they attacked, but we couldn’t find it. I expect 30 more by the end of the month.”

“Wh- THIRTY?! Now, pray t’ the moons and tell me where yer gonna get all that metal? It’s gotta be lightweight, strong, high quality, tough t’ blast apart but weak enough t’ melt-”

“Just do it. Otherwise I’m calling you a traitor, and letting Queen Scarlet deal with you in her arena.”

That got Huaso to shut up, even if Burn didn’t know why that is. He huffs and turns to head back to his workshop, but he’s suddenly pinned down by one of her guards.

“Queen Burn! I urge you to see his tail, there’s a sail on the end! A Seawing’s sail!”

The other two guards get to work on wiping away Huaso’s mud disguise. This is one of the few times Huaso wished he wasn’t so bright, the iridescent green quickly shone through the dark mud once enough layers were off.

The look on Burn’s face is one Huaso will never forget. She demanded for her guards to move, then grabbed Huaso by his neck, lifting him up. It’s a terrifying reminder of how huge Burn is, and how strong, and how experienced judging by the countless scars on her face.

She starts walking out of the den, then flies to the middle of the plaza, holding Huaso in the air.

“This dragon has been with you for years! I’ve overheard he’s been here since he was only a year old! How long have you all known he was the bastard child of our enemy?!”

Huaso manages to choke out something snarky “Hey! Ah ain’t fatherless! He didn’t technically abandon me, _I_ abandoned _him!_ ”

She tightens her grip for a second, but then loosens it. Then some more… Huaso recognizes this type of deteriorating strength. With a strong swing of his heavy tail, he falls out of Burn’s claws right before she collapses. Every visit, she would have different guards, they never stayed around long enough to notice. Now that she’s been around him for this long, physically holding him up to her face and dragging him around… She caught his plague.

The guards are by his side, and a few of the Mudwings fly up to Huaso.

“Git out before she wakes up! We’ll make an alibi!” This specific Mudwing was Huaso’s friend since he got here, Swamp. His siblings were the ones who followed him, with Swamp being noticeably bigger than everyone, including Huaso.

“Ah ain’t leaving ya guys in her claws!”

“Huaso, as your Bigwings, I am _pleading_ with you, leave!”

Huaso’s Bigwings… Mudwing parents never cared for their children, everyone stuck by the siblings they were born with, the biggest egg always hatched first and assisted the other eggs, becoming the siblings’ guardian…

Huaso was considered their sibling, with a Bigwings to protect him. He’s never wished for siblings, but maybe it’s because he’s never had to between his younger uncles and most of the Mudwings. He nods and uses his cursed wings to fly out of the kingdom, faster than any of Burn’s guards.

\--

He couldn’t just leave everything in his workshop! He had to pack anything that would fit in several pouches around his neck, and two on his front legs. The last thing, a pair of quartz-lensed goggles that protected his eyes from fire, would fit right on his face as he flew back out. Now that he’s done looping around the Mud kingdom and tricking the guards, he’s off to head south.

\--

A storm has stirred in the rainforest, with strong winds and harsh droplets of rain pounding on Huaso’s wings.

He just has to go a little farther, far enough to lose them for at least a week, maybe a month. Heck, he wouldn’t mind a year to make them really forget.

His wings started to tilt down without him wanting them to, they were too exhausted to hold his weight much longer.

“No. Keep going. Until ah can’t see the mountains when ah look back!”

But they refused to hold on. The cold wind and harsh rain made his muscles freeze, and he plummets. The hundreds of trees below were close enough to catch his fall no matter where he fell, but it still hurt like the sun grazing his scales.

Branches tore his pouches to pieces, his precious tools and spare metal landing in moons know where as he fell, an especially tough branch manages to ride up his horn and get caught on the band holding his goggles to his face, making him hang by his _other_ horn.

The rest of the goggles slip off and he lands on the ground with an upsetting “Youch!”

Actually, that wasn’t him, he was too tired to do anything other than huff on impact, and breathe really heavily.

An invisible force slips out from under him, the cold and wet forest floor is soothing against his aching muscles. However, it didn’t last long, as that invisible force turned visible right in front of him, seething red… A Skywing? No, they have frills on the sides of their face, why are they r-  
“ **AAAAAAAARGGH!!!** ”

The searing pain in both of Huaso’s eyes took him by surprise, the dragon spit some kind of twin-trail acid right into them. It burned, it burned more than any fire Huaso’s ever felt, he could feel the scales on his cheeks start falling off as the acid drips down, melting his skin and marking his now exposed face tissue.

“Cherry!” Why in the moons was someone screaming cherry? “Why did you do that!? He wasn’t attacking you!”

“He landed right on top of me! What if it was an ambush?!”

“You’ve always been suspicious of everything! Did you get his eyes?”  
“Of course I did!”

“CHERRY! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HIM!”

Huaso forces himself to stand and starts forming any ideas to stay alive, now that he knows this is what dying feels like. He felt his goggles fall onto his front foot, the support stuck on the branch finally broke. Thinking of something quickly, he grabs the goggles and tries to form the right words in his head. A million thoughts are happening at once, he needs to find a way to protect his soul, he needs to do this fast enough to stop himself from dying, he- SOMEONE SPIT IN HIS EYES AGAIN!

But for some reason, it stopped burning, at least before his eyes just straight up melted. However, said eyes were still bleeding quite a bit. He thinks of something.

“Enchant these lenses to hold my blood, keep my soul safe as long as they’re near.”

The goggles fix themselves, and Huaso immediately puts them on, tightening the bands so they press into his face. Fatigue finally wins his body, and he faints.

\--

When he wakes up, it’s extremely bright. He could have sworn that it was storming just last night, and he should be under layers upon layers of giant leaves blocking the sun. Sitting up, he notices that he was moved to some kind of nest, made of some kind of rope suspending him off the ground, and softened with leaves.

He looks around, then feels something wet try and attack his eyes from the force. He yelps and puts a claw to his face, but his goggles are still on. Blinking a few times, he notices it was… His own blood, His eyes were still bleeding and filled about half of the goggles by now, the quartz stained red.

There’s a dull ache coming from his head, he has to get some water, maybe something to eat. He’s been living with the Mudwings for so long, he nearly gained their big appetite from how much food they had, but his stomach couldn’t handle most of their tougher meats like alligators, and preferred birds and fish much more.

“Hello? Mr. Green scales?”

There’s a thin dragon poking his cheek, making some pain flare up and forcing Huaso to growl at them. He rolls over in the nest- hammock, actually, it finally came back to him. Pretending to be asleep, the dragon still pokes him, thankfully on the wing this time. Huaso manages to pull himself back up to look at him.

Somehow, the dragon shifted from a teal, to a bright pink. Wait, what? Maybe Huaso’s eyes were still adjusting to the light and blood.

“Oh good! You’re awake! I’m Strawberry!” The odd dragon took one of Huaso’s claws and shook it excitedly, a grin spread wide on his face. He turns to cough for a split second, but it puts Huaso on edge. Strawberry tilts his head “Are you okay? Your eyes are... Well, I would say that it might be normal since I have no idea what tribe you’re from, but Cherry told me everything about you landing on her so she decided to shoot venom into your eyes- sorry about that, by the way! She’s been on edge ever since Pomp decided to mate with Gecko instead of her!”

“Ah… Can ya… Git away?”

“Sorry! Do you hate closed spaces? I can glide over here and keep an eye on you!” Before Huaso can protest, he flaps up then glides down into a platform made of wood, watching Huaso intensely. When Huaso finds a ledge to hop out of the hammock onto, he notices that _dozens_ of the dragons are watching him. These are probably the Rainwings he heard about, famous for being dumb, isolated, weak, and hard to find. So far, Huaso only knows that 2 of those are true, and his face will forever be a reminder of their strength.

A headache pounds on his skull, and his stomach growls, reminding him of what’s important. Not wanting Strawberry’s cough getting worse, he yells “Do ya have any food or water? Sorry if ah’m bein’ a bother, but it was a real bad fall!”

Strawberry perks up, then gracefully glides to the forest floor, running off and hopping along the trees. Huaso waits, noticing the goggles getting fuller by the minute. Strawberry comes back with some fruit Huaso’s never seen before, and a giant cup of water. How he carried that up here, he doesn’t know, but at least it got to Huaso safely.

Gulping down the water instantly relieves his headache, Huaso sighs happily as he sits painlessly. Once the headache was gone, he noticed that his eyes and cheeks don’t hurt anymore, maybe he subconsciously added something to his enchantment? It’s a bonus he’ll gladly take.

He’s more hesitant with the fruit, the only ones he ever ate were the coconuts of the Sea kingdom’s beaches, and those didn’t agree with him so much.

He grabs a long yellow fruit, Strawberry says “Oh, wait” and peels it for him, showing a nearly white inside that seemed much softer. Huaso takes one bite, and nearly gags. It must have been obvious, because Strawberry takes the rest. “Okay, so, bananas aren’t in your diet, maybe something smaller? This is what Cherry is named after! There’s a seed inside, so be careful!”

It’s bite sized, so he just de-pits the cherry and throws the rest into his mouth. A real gag this time. “Hm… What about something sour?” Strawberry peels another fruit, and takes out a slice of it, it’s a light green. Huaso coughs over the edge of the platform as his eyes water, pouring out more blood.

The rainwing seems upset at this development, although a bit interested in Huaso’s flickering scales, one long scale on his arm keeps flashing. Little did Strawberry know, Huaso’s screaming “Stopstopstopstopstop”

He sighs and says “Alright, I was hoping we could have avoided this, but I’m not going to let you starve…” He bounds off again, leavin Huaso to cough out the rest of the lime juice from his throat. After drinking more of the water, he manages to calm down. Strawberry comes back with a dead parrot. “It was really hard to do, but there’s an abundance of parrots, and only one of you… I hope it’s the right one this time…”

Huaso quickly grabs it from the other’s claws, and just shoves the entire bird in his mouth, his sharp teeth pulling the skin apart and he spits out feathers and bones to make his meal easier to swallow. As soon as he does, there’s another sigh of relief, no gagging or upset stomach.

“Grosssss, okay, we should teach you how to catch animals then, there’s no way I’m going to kill another parrot with my own claws!”

“Fine by me…”

Looking around, Huaso can clearly see that the Rainwings got closer, curious. He starts to look around for a quick exit, but can’t find any in this dense forest. It’s getting harder and harder to see, but he can’t risk taking off his goggles, bringing back the pain and possibly dying.

“Listen, ah need out of here, or at least some place t’ keep me hidden without riskin’ y’all getting sick, any abandoned places of t’ rainforest?”

Strawberry tilts his head “Hm? Why? None of us mind you staying with us! We won’t get sick of you!”

“No, ah mean literally, ah’m incredibly contagious an’ it could kill ya!”

“Really? I’ve been with you since you got here half a day ago, and I’ve been fine! Besides, it’s almost suntime, if I show you any places now, I’ll miss it?”

“Suntime?”

At the mention of it, nearly all of the rainwings fly up the carved tree they’re in, rolling into hammocks, nests on platforms, and really anywhere they can reach. They’re all falling asleep with the sun shining on their rainbow colored scales, most of them turning pink like Strawberry. Can they just change colors naturally? Why was Cherry red earlier? To fit her namesake?

He’s been left alone in this odd kingdom as everyone else sleeps, Huaso slowly becomes blind while waiting for them to wake up… If there ever was a time for echolocation to develop, now would be the time.

\--

As he somewhat expected, he spent a year in the rainforest. Today is his 8th hatching day, while he would normally have a tiny party with his Mudwing sibs, he has to spend his 8th alone in his dragon-made home of the rainforest. Although, complaining about it the week before to his best friend, who was more cautious around Huaso after The Big Breakout half a year prior, Strawberry himself showed up.

“Huuuuaaaasoooo!!!”

“Yer t’ only one who can pronounce mah name like ah intended, y’know? What’re ya doing here?”

“It’s your hatching day, right? Most Rainwings don’t know their hatching day, since we never really know what day of the year it is, we just kinda know when a full year has passed! Anyway, I’ve never been able to celebrate a hatching day, and I don’t want to miss it! I got you a gift!!”

Strawberry presents Huaso with a folded leaf, carefully holding something inside. Huaso gently takes the leaf, trying not to touch Strawberry’s claws. “Thank ya, but ya really didn’t need t’ do that, ah understand if ya wanna leave right aw-”

“Naaaah! I’ve been getting sick less and less whenever I visit you, I can hang around for a while, I think you’re making me stronger!”

Huaso gives him a small smile of wishful thinking. “Can ah open it now?”

“Of course! Oh! Actually! Do it where there’s a lot of light so you can see it properly! On the way, I’ll give you a few hints!”

Huaso’s taken to one of the open skied trees where the Rainwings have suntime, it looks like it was cleared out for him to be taken here safely. It’s weird, everyone was so respectful of him, even when they nearly died. Thankfully, because Huaso noticed the signs, he didn’t stick around long enough for that to happen.

His friend flies to the very top of the tree, where it was early morning, the perfect time to avoid anyone having suntime, without forcing them to miss any real sunlight, and still having it be bright enough for Huaso to see through his red goggles.

“Sooo… I know you think it’s dumb that you still think of her somtimes, even when you’ve basically barely met, but I don’t think it’s dumb at all! I know how important she was, and every detail you gave me I took to memory!” They’re at the top now, Huaso can almost see the shape of his gift through the leaf, but the goggles still make it impossible to decipher. Although, with how Strawberry’s talking… Huaso may have an idea.

“Straw… Ya didn’t...”

“I did!! I’ve been practicing figurines for a while now, and I think I made my first masterpiece! All for you, my friend! Ooooh I hope I remembered her face right!! Oh! If you think you can see, you can open it now!”

Huaso gently unfolds the leaf, gasping at what he saw.

It’s a wooden figure of his mother, Maroon. She looked as dignified as the last time Huaso saw her. She was sitting proudly with her head tilted towards the air, facing death in the face while she smiles softly. The curve of her horns, her slim face, her long tail curled around her talons… They were all perfect.

“Strawberry, ah don’t know how t’ thank ya-”

“Don’t, you don’t need to. All I hope is that it makes you happier about her decision, seeing her like this. I heard she was just as brave as you.”

Huaso laughs through his tears, his voice breaking. Strawberry turns to him, wrapping Huaso in a wing without any hesitation. “Hey, are you okay? Did I do something wrong? Wait, was it mean to make you remember her? I’m sorry-”

“No! Yer fine! I just… Ah’m so happy, Straw…” He lets out a shaky breath, then takes in another to prepare himself to say something he’s always wanted to say for the first time.

“I love you, ya know? Yer my best friend in t’ entire world, to every moon an’ back… I know ya said not to thank you but… Thank ya anyway, I’m so lucky t’ have found ya when ah did…”

The other starts to tear up, himself. He wraps his long tail around Huaso’s shorter one, spiraling around and around. “I love you too, you big sap! Now come here, before I spread the sniffles.”

They hug it out, and Strawberry sends Huaso off with his gift to spend his time safely alone.

\--

Another 2 years pass, with the war still going (Huaso guesses it’s been 4 years by now.) It’s a quiet night on the edge of the rainforest, and the darkness won’t stop a small dragon from searching the mud, rivers, and brush for treasure.

“Another ruby? In t’ rainforest? Good thing the queens don’t like Rainwings, huh?”

Huaso unceremoniously drops the ruby into a small puddle, the splash making something squeak angrily. A scavenger has followed Huaso on his hunt, an odd friend he made, who liked to wear various white masks of animals, so Huaso has to recognize him either by his favorite mask (A frog) or by his spiky black hair. It’s pretty hard to do when Huaso’s essentially blind at this point, but he hasn’t met any other scavenger in the forest.

The echoes of the scavenger struggling to lift the ruby and put it into a bag light up Huaso’s vision, his ears pointed directly at the source. The dragon chuckles and gently taps a claw on the scavenger’s head a few times, almost like petting. “Yer very determined, ah wonder if ya know we have t’ same intelligence, or yer just waiting for the day ah get hungry and eat ya alive.”

The scavenger, that Huaso named “Scrounge” in his head, looked up and lifted the mask to show his mouth, giving Huaso a very dragon-like smile, just with flatter teeth. Maybe he’s learned to understand him at this point?

Echoes burst by Huaso’s left ear, it flicks to point at it before the rest of his head does. He can hear two dragons marching, talking to each other about… He didn’t just hear them say “Prophecy” did he? Other than that odd piece, he recognizes the voices. It can’t be…

He decides to carefully stalk forward, learning how to stay quiet and spy on people from Cherry, an odd way for her to apologize, but it’s helpful here.

“- think it’s really going to happen? Ah’m not sure some dragonets are going t’ stop this thing, and why wait 20 whole years? There’s no way it’s goin’ to last that long, Burn’s stronger than both of her sisters!”

“But Blister’s smarter, and no one can even reach Blaze without freezing t’ death! If anything, Burn’s going to go first because of her recklessness, then Blister will find a way to kill Blaze safely, an’ the war will be over with!”

The voices belong to Mudwings that Huaso knows _very_ closely. He’s not sure how Burn would change them over these past 3 years, but he decided to take a risk and come out of hiding, stopping right in front of his Bigwings, Swamp, and their little brother, Heron.

“Howdy, y’all.”

“HUASO!” They both say at the same time, with extreme enthusiasm. Heron runs up and tackles him in a wing hug, with Swamp quickly following, being big enough to wrap his wings around the both of them.

Heron keeps yelling in Huaso’s ear, asking questions about his face, his life in the rainforest, anything he can think of. Swamp mutters a quick “I’m so glad yer safe!” He pulls Heron back to give Huaso space. Huaso hasn’t been held like that since he left the Mudwing kingdom, it was so weird, familiar but unexpected because of his blindness.

“Ah heard ya two talking ‘bout some kinda prophecy? An’ more importantly, what’re ya two doin’ way out here? Do ya know how deep in the forest ya are?”

“What do you mean? This is right along the edge! We’re supposed to be scouting for any spies and possible ambushes, but we won’t mention a word about you!”

“HUASO HOLY HECK JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE!!”

“A rainwing got spooked and shot venom in mah eyes, thankfully these goggles keep me alive, and ah’ve learned how t’ echolocate! Although ah don’t remember t’ forest bein’ that small…"

Swamp chuckles “You were treasure hunting, right?”

“Yeah?”

“You probably lost track of where you were, how does it go when you can’t see the metal?”

“Weird, but I’ve made mah own system to identify ores an’ metals, seems t’ work perfectly.”

Huaso carefully retraces his steps and leads them to his little hut. Moving some unneeded furniture and projects out of the way, the two Mudwings can fit inside comfortably. They sit on a pile of leaves, getting caught up. Huaso tells him everything he knows about the rainforest and Rainwings, but made them promise not to tell anyone about their venom since there’s no need to spread panic about these harmless dragons. Swamp and Heron tell him about the war and attacking Icewings, Burn taking over her mother’s palace and turning it into a mess full of heads on spikes of the walls she added, and a giant tower where she keeps every weird creature and dragon she finds.

“Oh yeah, and another thing, Nightwings came outta hiding fer a second to give us a prophecy.”

“... Sorry if this is rude but… Who are t’ Nightwings?”

Heron laughs and Swamp pats his back, Huaso’s cheeks would probably be red if scales didn’t block them normally, and if he had bloodflow to them currently. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, little bro. We didn’t mention them at all durin’ yer stay, and ya were too young t’ learn from yer dad. They can read minds an’ see the future! Giant black dragons t’at have some kinda secret utopia on t’ continent somewhere. Someone called Morrowseer came out an’ said a prophecy fer us.”

Swamp clears his throat and tries to weaken his accent so the prophecy is delivered correctly.

“When the war has lasted twenty years, the dragonets will come.

When the land is soaked in blood and tears, the dragonets will come.

Find the Seawing egg of deepest blue, wings of night shall come to you.

The largest egg in mountain high will give to you the wings of sky.

For wings of earth, search through the mud for an egg the color of dragon blood.

And hidden alone from the rival queens, a Sandwing egg awaits unseen.

Of three queens who Blister, Blaze, and Burn, two shall die and one shall learn.

If she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher, she’ll have the power of Wings Of Fire.

Five eggs to hatch on brightest night, five dragons born to end the fight.

Darkness will rise to bring the light, the dragonets are coming…”

Huaso’s still amazed by Swamps storytelling voice, but Heron looks bored, as if he’s heard it a million times by now. “Wait, Mudwings have red eggs every few years, how will ya know it’s t’ right one?”

“That’s what the brightest night part means! It has to be an egg that will hatch when all three moons are full at the same time! It’s so rare, that we were afraid that it wouldn’t happen within the next 20 years! Thankfully, Queen Moorhen and her siblings worked it out, counted the days, and there’s going to be a brightest night 8 years from now!"

“EIGHT YEARS?” Huaso stomps a foot and wacks his tail on the ground, hard. “Ah can’t wait eight whole years fer some random dragonets t’ hatch, and eight more for t’ war to have lasted 20 years! As nice as t’ Rainwings are, ah miss y’all! I miss bein’ in a town that ah could walk freely in without gitting anyone killed! Ah miss you and Heron an’ Frog and Bayou and Queen Moorhen an’ _all_ mah frequent patrons! But as long as Burn is allied with ya, ah can’t go _home!_ ”

The Mudwings are hugging him again as Huaso trembles, letting him get all of his emotions out without destroying any more of his leafy ground, or anything else for that matter. Huaso calms down and sighs, staying silent. After a second, Heron pulls back and looks around, noticing a stringed instrument Huaso made himself.

“Hey, how musical are the Rainwings?”

“... Not very, they don’t know how t’ play anything ah far as ah know.”

“Well, instead of moping about the prophecy, do what the rest of the continent is doing.” He hands Huaso the guitar and urges Swamp to let up on his hug. “Take it as a sign of hope, and be happy! We have a bar song based off of it now! OOOOH-”

“Not this again…”

“The dragonets are coming! They’re coming to save the day! They’re coming to fight for they know what’s right! The dragonets! Hurray!”

The dragons laugh at the performance, Huaso glances down at the instrument in his claws. He’s been playing guitar since he saw a young Mudwing dragonet plucking it’s strings and creating beautiful sounds, and of course he’s kept practicing when he moved here. It’s easier now, relying on the sound and already having the practice to know how to hold and play it, he might as well make a similar performance.

Matching most of Heron’s keys, he repeats the barsong back to them, the next few times, Heron joins by singing the lyrics again, then Swamp. It’s fun to be able to play for them again.

\--

Tonight is Brightest Night.

Most of the Rainwings have noticed the unusual brightness of the night sky, almost like it was still day. Some of them decided to have a “reverse suntime” to see what would happen to their scales.

Huaso, Strawberry, and Cherry sit atop the highest trees, having cleared a spot of leaves to see clearly. Huaso isn’t wearing his goggles, letting the blood run free. He can handle it for about an hour, but timing doesn’t matter, the moons will be full all night.

Cherry and Strawberry insisted on staying by him, knowing that his blood will get them sick faster, but they’ve built up an immune system to resist it for as long as Huaso decides to watch. The red dragon beside him sighs as she looks higher up, while the pink on his other side giggles happily.

“Cherry, why’d ya decide t’ sit by me?”

“Isn’t it ooooobvioussss??” Strawberry singsongs. “Sheee liiiikes youuuu!!”

“No, no to the moons and back, I can’t even like anyone, remember? Turns out my fleeting crush on Pomp was platonic with a desire to contribute to the population,” She quickly changes the topic “Also, it’s because you’re my friend too, even if you don’t think you are, you deserve some company on this beautiful night, Huaso.”

“Huaaasoooo you taught her all these big fancy words and I don’t know annnyyything!!!”

The hybrid laughs, not taking his eyes off the moons. “Ya know every damn word ah know, ya just don’t like that big fancy talk.” A soft and sad sigh escapes him. “Ah think tonight… Is t’ night ah leave the rainforest.”

They both look at him, surprised. Cherry’s temper starts to rise, while Strawberry starts to cling to him.

“Don’t gooo!!! Please!! You’re my best friend and I don’t know what I’ll do knowing that you’re going to put yourself in danger!”

“Seriously?! You can’t just spend 11 entire years here and decide you’re going to leave without giving us ANY warning!”

“This is why ah didn’t tell y’all. Listen, ah love it here, but t’ isolation… Neither of mah tribes were meant fer it… NONE of mah _actual_ tribes were meant fer it. Tonight is t’ night those “Dragonets of Destiny” are bein’ hatched, they’re goin’ to be the only dragons raised alongside other tribes like ah was… Ah want to make this night important fer myself, ah want to travel again and help them with their fight to end the war...

“Tonight will mark the day ah stop hidin. One day of mah life in the Sky kingdom, one year in the Sea kingdom, six in the Mud, eleven in the Rain. Ah’m _going_ to see the rest of the world.”

The rainwings stare at him, then at each other. They nod, Cherry grumpily says “I still think you’re being rash about this… But we can’t keep you here forever, so… Promise you’ll stay safe?”

“Buddeh, t’ only promise ah made ah’ve broken… But it took me 6 years t’ do it and it was for t’ safety of others so yeah, ah promise.”

They smile and give him a quick hug, Strawberry coughs so they glide down, full of sorrow of having to say goodbye.

Huaso puts his goggles back on once his headache decides to be bothersome. He flies away from the village and drinks from a river to cure it. Now was the time to leave, he’s already packed the night before.

He looks at the quartz case carefully containing the figure of his mother, a note he wrote is laying against it.

“Strawberry.

Take care of mom for me, I’ll come back to get her once I know we’re going to stay someplace safe.

Love, Huaso.”

The wood hasn’t even deteriorated yet, she’s still the same as always, whatever Strawberry did, he did it right.

\--

Just one more visit to the Mud kingdom, and Huaso will risk taking a shortcut to the Sand kingdom by sneaking through the Sky kingdom.

He nearly blends in with the night sky, the bright moons blocking out his pale scales and outshining his glowscales, but if a Mudwing he knew happened to look up, they would instantly see him and confuse the younger Mudwings that hatched while Huaso was gone. Could one of the eggs be a dragonet of destiny, hatching alongside their siblings? Would they be a Bigwings? Or were they taken to live isolated with the other dragonets?

As he got closer, hoping to see anyone he knew, maybe to say goodbye properly, he heard music. It’s a calmer version of the barsong Heron taught Huaso.

“Oh, the dragonets are coming…”

He spots a big crowd of the Mudwings in the plaza, all looking to the moons. There’s older dragons he recognizes, dragonets all grown up now. Searching for the one dragonet that was brave enough to ingest a bit of Huaso, he starts to notice something.

“They’re coming to save the day.”

Some of the ones he was hoping to see are… Gone. In fact, he can’t find Swamp in the crowd… It’s been a while since Swamp visited, but maybe it’s because he got too busy? Maybe he took over Huaso’s smithy to keep his fellow Mudwings safe? Maybe he’s taking care of his sibs?

“They’re coming to fight,”

Huaso flies over the rest of the kingdom, stopping a few voices when they see him. They later rejoin when they sing again.

“For they know what’s right.”

Now was time to leave the kingdom, there’s a small marsh between it and the Sky kingdom, although it didn’t often smell like ash…

“The dragonets!”

Where did these fires come from? What were these blue spiky dragons doing laying on the ground?

Why is Swamp laying with them?

“THE DRAGONETS!”

This war has to end.

\--

Another Ice dragon can be clearly seen flying through the sky, the full moons making it impossible to keep hidden, making his scales become a beacon. He was holding a giant red egg.

Huaso ignores him, the only reason he noticed he was there was because of how bright he was, shining through the red lenses, he doesn’t want to end up like his Bigwings, so he has to ignore the Icewing and hope he gets ignored as well.

A yell is heard from the Icewing, making Huaso look. It was too far to be of any danger to him but-

It’s Burn. Burn and her army of fellow Sandwings. They took down the Icewing, and used red hot chains to keep his mouth shut. Burn’s messing with the egg- A Skywing egg, Huaso finally realized.

A huge Skywing egg.

She drops it over the edge, stabs the Icewing, and drops him with it.

She killed a dragonet to stop the prophecy.

Anger flares through Huaso, wondering if he could change his scales like Rainwings, he would be redder than Cherry. He can’t do anything now, he can’t take Burn on while her entire army is with her.

Next time, when she’s alone.

_I may have had the wrong egg, but I’m part Skywing, aren’t I? I’ll stop this war no matter what._

\--

The only eventful thing that morning was seeing a dragonet on fire, perfectly fine with it, flying through the sky of the Sky kingdom alongside one other dragonet. She accidentally touches him, and he drops down as a pile of ash. She looks so ashamed, heading back to the palace to seek help.

Huaso might have another reason to avoid the Sky kingdom now.

\--

He skipped the Sand kingdom and went to the Ice kingdom. He can’t go too far without freezing to death, but hopefully this change in weather might kill off some of his pathogens.

Instead, he nearly got an Icewing killed when they bit his leg to stop him from going further.

At least he didn’t use frostbreath, that would probably kill Huaso faster than he’d like.

After some civil talking, the Icewing agrees to leave him alone, and warns him about the Ice Cliff, a wall of ice that magically attacks anything that isn’t an Icewing to avoid any attacks on the palace. Makes sense, even if nothing else can really survive out here.

Some Sandwing guards, covered in huge fluffy blankets, scare the living daylights out of Huaso. They quickly explain that they’re on Blaze’s side, and they aren't even trained to fight anyone in the snow. They leave as soon as they start feeling ill, leaving Huaso alone.

Huaso waits, then flies towards their general direction to find Blaze’s temporary palace in the Ice kingdom, which apparently has its own front door heater somewhere. She’s incredibly nice, if obsessed with her looks and dumb as a rock. He manages to snag his own room after Blaze got sick. (No one hated him for it, thankfully.) He decides to stay here for a couple of months.

\--

Queen Glacier decided to visit Blaze today, noticing an odd hybrid in her home.

“Queen Blaze, who in the _world_ is this? Looks like a sick Seawing, aren’t the Seawings with your sister?”

“Oh! This is my lovely guest, Huaso! He says he’s banished from both of his tribes, isn’t that silly? He’s so fun at my parties, likes to play guitar for everyone! Although he has to play from a distance, otherwise he gets everyone sick…”

“Right… Are you sure he’s safe?”

“Oh absolutely! He makes this place a lot more fun! He even brought some sand inside accidentally! Apparently, he made a pitstop in the desert, tripped, and got his bag full of sand! He let me keep it, what a doll!”

“Blaze, my Queen.” Queen Glacier uses the softest voice she has. “You have to be careful of who you let in… You said he’s making everyone sick? Isn’t that dangerous? When you’re all locked up in a single palace with a walking pestilence?”

Blaze considers her words for a very small second. “I suppose, but I’ve gotten somewhat used to him!”

“I think it’d be safer if he left…”

“No need t’ say more, yer highness. Ah can’t stand much o’ the cold anyway. Hope ya win the throne, Blaze!”

He cheerfully says goodbye, and flies to explore the giant desert.

\--

He was tempted to stay in the Scorpion Den for a while, but there’s too many Sandwings. From Huaso’s experience, Sandwings and Rainwings tend to get sick the quickest, while Seawings get it the _worst._ After meeting Blaze, he was somewhat hoping to meet Blister and see if she’d make for a better Queen, but no one in the desert knows where she and her faction lives. They certainly can’t stay here, that would be too easy of a target for Burn, who lived right in her fortress near the center of the desert.

It’s a horrid thing, Huaso didn’t stay long enough to remember any details other than the bleeding and rotting heads of dragons placed along the wall.

Now was not the time to face Burn, he had one place left to visit to decide on where to call home, or where to travel next to stall for time.

\--

The town of Possibility was an odd one. It was full of Skywings and Sandwings, just living together as if it was meant to be, mostly. Some were still a bit antsy around the scorpion tails and the huge wings of the other tribe, but it seemed to work out.

He’s heard that Burn promised Scarlet the property of the river, turns out it was fought over for hundreds of years between the Skywings and Sandwings, whoever controlled the water had the power according to Sandwings, and more water meant more farmland to the Skywings.

Proving his strength to a few loyal Sandwing guards, hoping to give him to Burn as a “weirdling present,” the inhabitants were able to set him up with his own Smithy again.

And again, he was able to prove himself, making high quality tools. He refused to sell to _any_ of the armies, and he promised he wouldn’t make weapons and armor until the war was over, so they couldn’t lie to him about their intentions.

It was going smoothly for the next 6 year.

The dragonets decided they wanted to be 2 years early to justice.

\--

Huaso’s been waiting _months_ for this.

He’s heard of the Mudwing who waited for the same, always finding some way to keep the peace between the tribes. Turns out, he was indeed a Bigwings, his siblings finally met him after 6 years, but he didn’t claim his spot as Bigwings, changing everything they knew about _their_ Bigwings. Instead, he used his regained Mudwing knowledge to be the best big brother to his fellow Dragonets of Destiny.

He’s heard of the Seawing Princess, stolen from her hatchery and finding her way to her mother, protecting her sisters by destroying the assassin that’s been cursing her family for generations. Apparently, Coral’s first daughter, Orca, set it up as a way for her to stay queen forever, but Orca failed in taking over the throne, leaving her mother in despair about her murdered daughters.

He’s heard of the brave Rainwing that replaced the dead Skywing egg, he’s so _so_ proud of her for becoming Queen as soon as she realized something was wrong in the rainforest, with Nightwings using animus-made tunnels to kidnap and study their venom. She’s also the one who spat the venom in Scarlet’s face, knocking her off the throne and letting her kinder daughter rule. Huaso’s been unbanished, and he hopes to find resources in the mountains soon. He would always laugh at the fact that Scarlet, the one who ruined his life by starting the trouble the day he was hatched, suffers from the same scars he has, from a moody Rainwing who wanted to protect her friends.

He’s heard of the smart Nightwing that betrayed his lying tribe, got them to submit to Queen Glory of the Rainwings _and_ Nightwings, and sadly got blinded in the process of leaving their erupting volcanic home. Maybe if he and Huaso ever met, he could give him some tips.

He’s heard of the Sandwing- And Nightwing! A hybrid like him!- Proving her own siblings wrong about how useful she is, born with golden scales, no scorpion tail, and always cheerful unlike the rest of her group, she orchestrated an end to the entire thing by using her smarts into getting animus touched objects, communicating with dreamers, watching her friends from afar, finding her mother and getting the warring Princesses to meet up and work out the war.

He watched from the skies, everyone from every single tribe was here, waiting anxiously.

The first thing that happens is Blister outsmarts Burn.

A “gift” containing two deadly Dragonbite Vipers, one bite killing a dragon, otherwise that would be a misleading name.

Burn expected one, so she reached in and killed it, but she didn’t expect the other. It bit her, and she died slowly. Huaso starts to grin, flying around the memorial they were fighting in to get in her vision.

Her eyes glare at him, pointing wildly, but she can’t say anything, and everyone’s ignoring her while they watch Blister fight Blaze. Huaso mouths a “Fuck you” to her, as she takes her last breath. Finally, the Mudwings and Skywings were free.

The dragonets of destiny, Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny, all work together to get the viper out of there, with the fire dragon Huaso saw years ago showing up to save Clay after he got bit. He’s somewhat fireproof, apparently, and the burn she made on his back leg was enough to burn out the poison.

Sunny has a scavenger with her, who’s pointing at the grave of Ex Queen Oasis. After some long digging, they find The Eye of Onyx, which sparks in the air. It _terrifies_ Huaso.

Blister claims the treasure as her own, as soon as she grabs it, she turns into a pile of dust.

“Of three queens who Blister, Blaze, and Burn, two shall die and one shall learn.”

Sunny’s siblings suggest she becomes the new queen, but she denies, instead giving the Onyx to her mother, Thorn, ruler of the Scorpion Den. The Eye of Onyx accepts her.

“If she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher,”

Blaze agrees to bow to Thorn. The new Sandwing Queen is chosen. The war is over.

“She’ll have the power of Wings of Fire.”

Huaso’s not quite sure what that part means yet, Clay made a comment that the fire dragon- Peril- was their wings of fire… Maybe she is.

\--

It’s 6 months later, and a weird event happened.

The Icewings got a plague, and Huaso was scared that he had to move out of Possibility.

But then Queen Thorn told everyone to wear some kind of enchanted earring, and they stopped getting sick.

\--

“ **BRING EVERY ANIMUS DRAGON IN PYRRHIA TO ME!** ”

Huaso was teleported to some kind of throne room, along with two Seawings- royalty, like him, two Nightwings- One bigger than any dragon he’s ever seen, and one that’s nearly made of stone, and an old Sandwing, did they have an animus?

No one but the big Nightwing noticed he was in the room, and suddenly, the Sandwing disappeared, then Huaso found himself back in his smithy.

What

\--

He’s finally finished moving his belongings into this better smithy, he built it himself! In a tiny hole in the wall, covered by the clearest quartz he could find, is his mother, watching over the smithy carefully.

“Hope ya like it here, ma… Ah’ve worked hard t’ find the perfect place fer us.”

Huaso yawns, but he still has to work out a few dents on this bracelet Strawberry ordered from him.

Once he’s finished, he can’t bring himself to jump up to his nest, maybe a little nap on the floor wouldn’t hurt? It’s dark enough for him to just pretend it’s night, and he’s tired enough to just sleep anywhere, he’s used to it by now.

Just a tiny nap…

Who the fuck was grabbing his tail?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The OFF tag ain't gonna be so dead when I decide to post twice weekly
> 
> *laughs evily in a way that really says "oh god oh fuck" because oh god oh fuck I'm sorry OFF tag*


	2. Eddie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie's backstory is as gruesome as it is tragic in Canon, so read those tags carefully and tell me if I missed anything important

If Eddie had any say in it, he would be the Bigwings.

Unfortunately, his brothers would be younger than him by several years, instead of several minutes, and despite being part Mudwing, he wouldn’t know what Bigwings were until years after his youngest would be hatched.

Mudwing parents wouldn’t normally take care of their children regardless of what they think about them. The parents would meet up to have eggs, the father would move on with his life, the mother would lay the eggs, make sure the Bigwings hatched, and give them all names before either joining the father or also moving on with her life.

Earth wasn’t a normal Mudwing parent, she was already in charge of taking care of Unsibs and single egg dragonets, and she’s grown to care for them deeply, wanting to help them grow as dragons. It’s not unorthodox, she wouldn’t get stares of sibling packs wondering why she was there if she's older than the dragonets, it was just rare for someone like her to care when the Mudwings always had each other regardless.

One night, the Mud kingdom had a visitor, a Sandwing covered in black diamonds decided to travel far, only to get stuck in some deep mud. His scales were never made for anything that clings so well and covers him completely. It was a long night of waiting for the Mudwings to wake up to help him.

Luckily for him, the first dragon to be awake was Earth, out for her morning walk. She leaned down to the Sandwing and gave a soft smile. “Need help there, little snake?”

He nervously chuckles “Funny you say that, my name’s Python, also yes, yes I do.”

She pulls him out of the mud easily, although he does worry about her strength possibly pulling his wing out. She runs off only to come back with a thick towel designed to clean the mud off. Although Sandwing scales tend to stick out, unlike the Mudwing scales that lay flat against their bodies, the towel can just barely reach between them.

“I suggest finding a river to wash yourself in, normally we don’t care about the mud drying since it’s easy for it to flake off, but in your case…”

“Yeah, I know. Can you fly me around to find a river? I don’t know the area at  _ all _ .”

“Sure!”

Python was uncomfortable most of the flight, with the fast winds drying the mud quickly. Bits of dirt and pebbles are making his scales itch, but his claws aren’t long enough to pick them out, and he can’t even reach his back mid-flight.

Thankfully, there’s a clean river nearby. The rushing water washed everything away pretty quickly, even if it was too cold for his liking. Earth sits by the riverbank, watching him crawl out and tiptoe over more mud to avoid going back in.

“Now, what’s a Sandwing doing so far from home? You realize this is basically the other side of the continent, right?”

“I had to get away from some bad dragons, got involved in a group I… Couldn’t handle, let’s just say. I would have gone to Queen Oasis directly for help, but they were right on my tail, I had to lose them first.”

He rolls onto the grass, curling up as much as possible. “I’ve been flying for 2 days straight, no breaks, hoping to outlast them… I need to hide away until I’m rested, and until I know it’s safe… Will the Mudwings mind if I just… Hang around?”

“Well, we don’t often get visitors, I think they’ll be delighted.”

\--

It wasn’t long before they came knocking to the Mudwings’ door. They were a group of scarred dragons, some of them having tattoos of various dragon heads scattering their neck. One had a large collection of them, covering his neck entirely with a few on his face.

As soon as Python could see them, he ran straight to Earth’s hut. They’ve been known to carelessly murder and dragonnap, if she says  _ anything _ about him, even if she says something like “He flew away” or “He’s dead we killed him.” She’s going to go with them.

Just as he feared, Earth isn’t at home. Maybe she’s visiting a dragonet? Running to the closest one he knows, his ears point back into the air, hearing her voice.

“Put me down this instant or I won’t hesitate to blast fire in your face! I don’t care if you  _ also _ have fire, I’m not going down without a fight!”

Python lifts off and flaps after them, yelling her name. The group stops and their leader, Vulture, glides down to hover in front of him. He smiles at Python with that sick grin, looking at him with eyes that seem to spiral into his entire soul. Vulture opens his arms to Python.

“Why, there you are! We’ve been looking all over for you, the group just feels incomplete without you!”

“You don’t even know my name… Just my actions. Let her go.”

“Who, this silly Mudwing trying to get striked by venom? You’ve only been gone for a few days, surely you don’t  _ care _ for someone outside your tribe! Much less a stupid Mudwing of all tribes.”

“She’s not- Listen, Vulture, she’s not a part of this! Just drop her gently, and I’ll go back with you, alright? I’ll do anything as long as you promise to  _ never _ harm an innocent dragon…”

Vulture scoffs and lets his tail lash in the air, somehow his body stays balanced. He turns and gestures to the rest of the group, they lift Earth higher. He turns back to Python and smiles sweetly. Before Python can react, Vulture grabs his arm and starts tugging him to the group.

“How about we  _ all _ go together! We bring this Mudwing back to the Scorpion Den, maybe trim a few bronze scales to sell, and you don’t have to be separated from her! How does that sound?”

“You’re sick.”

“You’re not much better, now come on, or she’s dead.”

With not much of a choice, Python follows Vulture and Earth back to the desert, his wings complain about how much he’s flying each day with no sand to soothe them. Soon they won’t be complaining, even if Python himself would rather be anywhere else in the world.

\--

Earth has never stopped fighting, only acting like herself around Python and the nicer inhabitants of the Scorpion Den, although it’s pretty rare.

Python could never understand her strength, she had to leave all of her dragonets behind in order to stay alive, having only the slimmest chance of escaping. At least it’s better than letting them kill her, leaving the dragonets for  _ good. _

After a month, Vulture agreed to let Python “Watch over her” and let her run freely through the Scorpion Den, as long as he was with her at all times. Vulture was hoping to run the entire den, and he had quite a bit of control in it already. If Python ever let her fly home, Vulture would find out not half a day later, killing him and Earth once they track her down.

So this was as much freedom they could get, and after stealing some treasure to later trade away, Python was able to get a considerably large home that could suit maybe 4 full grown dragons. It was the best he could do to give her space and privacy, since, at home, he didn’t  _ have _ to watch her at all times. As long as she doesn’t let her out it’s fine.

He was never sure by the way Earth seemed to thank him and keep her chin up high, but he hoped he wasn’t making her feel… Miserable. As if she has to stay here forever. As if Python wasn’t trying to find a way to bring her home.

While they lived together, they inevitably got closer and closer. Of course, the first to confess was Earth, who said “I love you” as if they’ve been saying it to each other for years. Python got so flustered that he had to ask her at least ten times if she really meant it, and that she meant it romantically. They’d be laughing at it for the next few years.

A year later, Earth would lay 2 eggs the color of sand with a mud-like pattern pouring over the top.

\--

“Hm…”

Earth was inspecting the eggs carefully, sometimes rubbing her eyes. Python gave her a worried look. “Is there… Something wrong with them?”

“No, they’re perfectly healthy, two males, strong shells, but I was kind of hoping at least one would be red.”

“What’s the difference? Just… A more amber-ish dragon?”

“Well, Mudwings hatched from red eggs would be somewhat fireproof, it would take longer to burn them, and their scales can heal over from burns easily.”

“Huh… That would be helpful… Especially here…”

Which reminded Python of how dangerous the Scorpion Den really is. Because he’s associated with Vulture, he didn’t get much trouble, yet whenever he was out with Earth, he would get stares and overhear parents telling their dragonets to “rob the dumb Mudwing, she won’t notice and the Sandwing won’t tell her.”

He would always prove them wrong if they couldn’t sneak by him first, and if they did, Earth would. She would always manage to use her witty tongue to confuse them, and if they got physical, she overpowered them easily. Yet no one would learn their lesson, because everyone in Pyrrhia believes that their tribe is the best, and getting bested by another was just a bad slippup.

He knows they wouldn’t hesitate to rob a month old dragonet, or kill a hybrid just to sell them.

“Earth, love, I think we should… Move.”

She stops inspecting the eggs to give him a bit of a confused glance. “Where? Is there a better house somewhere in the den? I’m surprised you’d give this one up after how hard you worked for it.”

“Actually, I was thinking more like-” He pauses, wondering how she’ll take it. Will she take the eggs and leave him for Vulture to capture? Hoping he’ll at least leave her sons alone? Or maybe, now that she’s actually laid the eggs, she’s lost her maternal instincts and will abandon them as soon as they hatch, heading back to the Mud kingdom? Yet both of these are so unlikely for her.

The pause was a big enough clue. “Oh, no, Python… I can’t leave, you know this. As much as I want to explore the kingdom with you, I can’t- He’ll-”

“I know, I was kind of hoping that he would just let you slide since you haven’t done anything to harm  _ or _ benefit him so far? Although keeping your strength hidden is pretty hard when everyone wants to pick a fight.”

“Still,  _ outside _ the Scorpion Den? I would be surprised if Vulture allowed me to walk my own street alone!”

“What if we sneak off? I could put on a disguise and show you the most remote places of the desert, or even better! I get you back home and you can get the help of your siblings to fight them off? You’re stronger than at least three of them combined, imagine what 5 of you can do!”

“No, it’d be putting Eddy and his brother at risk!”

“Eddy?”

She picks up the smaller egg, pointing out the swirls of the “Mud” dripping from the top. “The mud is eddying into the sand, so… Eddy. Sandwings curl their tails pretty often anyway, right?”

“Not really a Sand or Mudwing name… If we named our kids after their egg designs, everyone would be named Sand, Yellow, Dusty, or Pale.”

“Well, it’s unique! I still need to think of something for the Bigwings.”

“If we’re going for unique names, at least spell Eddy with an “I” “E” at the end, otherwise writing is going to be confusing for him. What if they had rhyming names?”

“Like… Hmm…. Bee- no, Se- Nope. Fffffffffffrrrrreddie!”

“That’s… Sure, actually, Eddie and Freddie. It’s more creative than what I was thinking of.”

“Which was?”

“Snake and Scorpion.”

“Wow.”

\--

The topic of moving was always changed whenever Python tried to bring it up. Eventually, he stopped, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get through to Earth. Although, whenever she addressed it, she would bring up Eddie and Freddie’s safety. She really did care for her own children, despite how she was raised without parents of her own, and taught that it was the norm.

Eggs take around a year to hatch, and for 11 months, both Python and Earth took turns sleeping by them. Since both tribes had fire, they didn’t have to worry about using outside resources to keep them warm, although there was rarely a time they had to use it, with the desert heat keeping them safe.

One night, Python was awoken by an odd cracking sound. Things get broken loudly all the time outside, so at first he didn’t care. But the sound was right by his ear, which was soon bumped by a rolling egg.

Python shot his head up and called for Earth, who ran down the stairs, still holding the scroll she was reading.

“Uh, love? You said the biggest egg would always hatch first and become the Bigwings, right?”

“Yes?”

“Well… Eddie’s hatching first.”

“WHAT?”

They both watched carefully, Python moved out of the way to let Eddie hatch on his own, any interference could accidentally hurt him, but mostly, it’s because Eddie was hatching too early. There was still another month left. There’s a chance that he’ll give up and wait, trying again every few days, then finally hatch when he’s really ready.

But as soon as they saw a dark gray talon poking out of the crack, they knew he wasn’t giving up. Quite easily, the egg shell breaks apart, and a tiny dragonet crawls out. He’s completely orange and brown, with a few scales having speckles of sandy yellow. His entire body has the black diamond-shaped scales from his father.

Eddie starts looking around, blinking his eyes and getting used to the light, normally Sandwing eyes are completely dark except for the iris, having a bit of color. Eddie has completely bright red rings.

“What should we do? Is he going to be okay if he hatched early? What about the Bigwings stuff about them hatching the same day?”

“I’m not sure, we just have to watch and hope he has those Bigwings instincts. As soon as he gets his bearings, he’ll look around for extra eggs, and help them hatch… With how easily he broke out of his egg a month early, I’m somewhat worried about what he’ll do to Freddie…”

Just as Earth said, as soon as Eddie stops squinting at everything, he starts looking around wildly. When Freddie’s egg is spotted, he crawls over and leans his face on it. While dragonets will still be smaller than their own eggs, Eddie is dwarfed by Freddie’s, being three times as big as the entire dragonet.

Eddie starts climbing the egg, keeping an ear pressed against it. Once he reaches the top, he starts tapping it, then he tries to dig his claws into it.

“Whatdowedowhatdowedowhatdowe-”

“Python, look closely.”

He calms down and does. Eddie’s clearly not using as much strength as he did with his own egg.

“He’s testing if it’s ready, if the shell is weak enough for him to break apart from the outside.”

Just like Earth said, the shell wasn’t weak enough to break through Eddie’s digging, the dragonet gives up then dangerously hops down the egg, already trying to use his wings to glide, but instead he tumbles onto the wooden floor. As expected, he starts crying.

Python looks to Earth to see if it’s okay to help, but she’s already there to do it. She picks up Eddie, as gently as she can, and starts shushing him quietly. He calms down and falls asleep, clinging to Earth’s talons.

\--

For the next month, Eddie refused to move from Freddie’s egg. The first word he learned was “food” and would only say it when he was on the edge of starving. His parents quickly realized what he was doing, and would always leave him food every few days, somewhat thankful that he didn’t get a Mudwing’s stomach in the desert.

Once Freddie started to wake up and crack his shell, Eddie was already there to help him, pulling apart anything he could find until he could reach scales. During the month, Eddie grew a bit, almost reaching the top of the egg, but when Freddie broke free and managed to stretch himself out, Eddie was once again dwarfed.

Freddie looked like a full blooded Mudwing, completely brown, with only his tail and wings resembling those of a Sandwing, and even the tail was shorter than a Sandwing’s.

The first thing Eddie did was sit on his hind legs and hug Freddie’s neck, while the other was still getting used to the light of the room much like his brother a month ago. Freddie sniffs the air and starts leaning towards the food Eddie left behind, squeaking and trying to get Eddie’s tight grip off of his neck. Python slowly steps forward and nudges Eddie off, who sadly complies. Freddie dives for the food and nearly swallows it all whole. Thankfully, he doesn’t choke on anything.

Earth sighs. “Python, remember when Eddie didn’t ask for food until extremely late at night after he hatched? And he didn’t eat much?”

“Yes?”

“... I think we’re going to be dealing with polar opposites here, so we should probably stockpile on food to prepare for Freddie’s size…”

“... Oh.”

\--

Both brothers started losing their brown and amber scales throughout the years, with Eddie looking almost like a pure blooded Sandwing, while Fred looks like a blonde Mudwing. The Scorpion Den had been calming down, and Python felt it was safe enough to let his kids explore on their own. He knows they’re both strong enough to handle anyone that comes their way, and Earth has finally gained a reputation amongst the den, letting dragons know that her children were not to be messed with.

The dragonets, however…

“Stupid hybrid!”

Eddie had to leap out of the way of an angry tail lashing at him, he wasn’t one for starting conflicts, or ending them if he had a choice. While he knows he could overpower one, maybe two dragonets, he wouldn’t bring himself to hurt them and start a cycle of revenge.

In this case, there just happens to be five angry dragonets, all chasing after him after he bought the last coconut in the market, as if Eddie didn’t earn his traded treasure fair and square!

Tightly holding the food under his wing, Eddie uses his strong upper arms to boost himself through the narrow streets, nearly tumbling over himself a few times. He spots an odd whitish yellow shape in the crowd ahead, and starts calling for his brother. The shape gets clearer, turning around, and instantly hopping over Eddie to stand between him and the other dragonets.

The dragonets skid to a stop, one of them bumping into Fred. She backs up, completely terrified of the massive dragonet. Fred grins, then suddenly shifts his weight forward, making the group back up a bit more after they gasp. Eddie says “Heads up, Jaws!” and tosses the coconut into the air, where Fred catches it easily. It takes a few bites to break down so he can actually close his maw, but it didn’t take long.

At this display, the dragonets run away in fear, while Fred gives a hearty belly laugh. “Cowards! I couldn’t even fight them this time!”

“That’s probably for the best, there’s a lot of dragons here trying to go about their day.” Eddie searches around, sniffing the air for more food. He finds a stall with some freshly cooked vultures and starts digging in his pouch for an onyx or some gold. Fred catches Eddie eyeing the vultures.

“Oooh, that’s gonna make the boss mad!”

“Shut up, he’s  _ not _ our boss, we didn’t sign up for anything, and mom’s technically a hostage, not his servant.” He manages to find some polished obsidian, thankfully it’s enough for two of the birds. “Besides, with mom carrying an egg from someone  _ outside _ the Talons of Power, they might ease up on her and let her go to the Mud kingdom with us!”

“I still don’t know why she’s carrying someone else’s egg, doesn’t she still love dad?”

“Of course, but it’s like… Charity work.” He passes a vulture to Fred and they find an empty table to sit at, Eddie eats a wing and some of the head, before Fred starts eyeing it, simply holding the bones of his vulture. Eddie sighs and shoves the rest of the bird to him. “Moon-dad Hawk wanted to continue his bloodline, but he was too sick for any Sandwing, so he went to mom cuz she can’t get sick!”

“Sounds stupid.” He said between bites. “I just think it’s weird, having a half sibling because some guy wanted an heir to his family business or something? Or was it family pressure since he couldn’t find a wife?”

“Both, also I like Moon-dad Hawk… He gives us free food!”

“I think it’s just to stay on dad’s good side…”

“We still get free food.”

Fred discards the bones and they start walking home. Earth was going to be laying their little brother today, so not only should they be there to check out his egg and make sure he didn’t get Hawk’s illness, but they’re also expecting Hawk to bring over snacks that only Fred’s going to end up eating while Eddie keeps an eye out for a lizard. He’s seen a very tiny scavenger running around the house sometimes, maybe if he’s quick enough, he could catch it and share with Fred, their first scavenger snack!

When they get there, the egg is already waiting in a soft nest of sand and cloth. Hawk’s carefully peering at it, nervously tapping his claws together as Earth lays by it, sleeping. Python spots his kids and gestures for them to interact with Hawk a bit.

Eddie bounds up first. “Moon-dad! Did it go well? Is he okay?”

Hawk flinches, just now noticing that the dragonets are home. He smiles as gently as he can and hands Eddie a heavy- somewhat bleeding- pouch. “I think he’s going to be okay, strong shell, perfect size, laid easily… Although I kind of wish I could see inside the shell.”

Eddie manages to sneak a piece of meat from the pouch before handing it to Fred, who finally decided to walk up to Hawk. “Hey, good job on the… Egg. Pick a name yet or something?”

“Earth said she wanted to name him Teddie, and according to the Mudwings, the mothers pick the names.”

Fred rolled his eyes “Yeah, cool, of course she would still make it rhyme.”

“I think it’s perfect.” Eddie interrupts. Fred shrugs and walks off with his third lunch for today. Eddie gets a closer look at the egg, keeping his head forward while pushing his clumsy talons away. It’s redder than Fred’s eggshell, but not the fabled “Dragon blood” shade, so he won’t be fireproof. Unlike both of their eggs, the mud pattern seems to drip down one side of the egg, leaving an entirely bare desert on the other side, a perfect split from front to back.

“He’s lovely, isn’t he?” His mother woke up, she looks tired, but happier than she’s ever been. Eddie hopes she shared the same smile when she first had him and Fred. “Eddie, can I tell you a secret?”

Eddie nods quickly, glancing back to see Python and Hawk looking over some scrolls, while Fred messes with a bone. Earth leans closer to whisper into Eddie’s ear.

“I felt two dragonets in there, I think that’s why the egg’s design is so odd. One male, I think the other is female but it’s hard to tell. Either way, how lucky are we?”

A smile spreads on the dragonet’s face, two more siblings? Their house might be getting a bit crowded, but maybe Eddie can chip in and find someplace even bigger for them!

\--

“Come on! You’re turning 7 this month! We aren’t going to let your dragonethood fly by you without a  _ little _ risk!”

The chains were heavy against Eddie’s wings, tying them tightly to his body. He was expecting his 7th hatching day to be more “Hurray! You’re an adult now! You can fly anywhere you want and tell your little brother to do anything!” and not “Hey! We dare you to jump off the den’s walls without using your wings! Gotta have some fun before it’s too late, right?”

Normally he wouldn’t take the dare and run to his brother, hoping he could scare them off before they needlessly hurt someone. This time, though, they had Cobra, Vulture’s only daughter. If Cobra gets upset, Vulture gets upset, and takes it out on Eddie’s family. So, after being forced to agree to the dare, Eddie snuck away from Fred and met them on top of the highest point in the entire city, the outside walls protecting them from the desert.

He wasn’t expecting the chains.

“Whaaaat, are you scared of heights? Want your mommy to fly you away? As soon as you’re 7, she’s going to kick you out anyway, Mudwings don’t look after their dragonets! So grow up and show her that you can take care of yourself, Mr. Mud scales!”

“I don’t have that many brown scales anymore-”

“HURRY UP AND JUMP!”

Eddie looks over the edge, it all sand down there, maybe if he manages to slow himself down, it’ll help his landing? He could cling to the wall and jump into that high dune over there. Before he could jump on his own terms, Cobra groans loudly and dramatically bumps into him, making Eddie lose balance and falling.

“NOW THAT WASN’T SO HARD, WAS IT?!”

His wings try to open as the air rushes by him, but instead the chains dig under his scales and get caught on the membrane. Then, he tries to turn around and get his claws stuck in the walls, hopefully it’ll slow him down at least a little. Instead, when he finally manages to reach it, his nails get chipped and his paws start bleeding. The last thing he hears before he hits solid rock, with only a thin layer of sand hiding it, is his brother’s voice.

“ **WHO PUSHED MY BROTHER OFF THE WALL?!** ”

\--

“Your son tried to kill my daughter.”

“I know, sir, that was wrong of him, he was just angry th-”

“No, you aren’t allowed to bring your oldest into this. He’s not part of the equation here, your youngest tried to kill my daughter for acting like a dragonet. SOMEONE here, needs to pay.”

Hawk steps forward. “Vulture, I take full responsibility, I was so focused on watching over my egg, that I didn’t realize Eddie was sneaking out. It’s my fault that Freddie worried, making him follow your daughter and-” Before he could finish, Vulture’s already stabbed his heart with the end of his tail. Hawk drops like a sack of rocks, dead.

Earth roars and stands from her spot next to Eddie and the twins, Eddie’s left horn got chipped off, his head is a bloody mess, wrapped in bandages alongside his paws and bruised wings. Fred’s on his other side, hoping he had the strength to stand like his mother, but after seeing Hawk get killed in front of him, his little brother’s father, because of  _ his _ actions? He just can’t, otherwise Eddie gets hurt even more.

Their mother tackles Vulture, holding his tail down with her own. She yells “HOW DARE YOU! YOU’VE KILLED AN INNOCENT FATHER BEFORE HE COULD EVEN SEE HIS DRAGONETS! YOU FUCKING-”

Vulture spits fire right into her eyes, she howls and Python helps pull her back, but before he could move her somewhere safe, she stops crying in agony.

A barb is pulled out of her chest, and Vulture strides in front of Python.

“As soon as your son can fly, you’re out of here. I don’t care where you go, I don’t care if you’re still in the desert, as long as you never step foot in the Scorpion Den ever again.”

\--

Did he die?

Why does his head hurt so much, where’s Freddie? Mom? Dad?

Why are his paws stinging? Who spread his wings out so much? It’s too cold, he has to close them to keep warm.

Someone’s stopping him from moving, who is that? They have huge claws, and they’re gently holding his wings in place, patting the spots that ache.

Is mom holding him? Is she watching after him?

He can’t wait to thank her when he’s awake again.

\--

When Eddie opens his eyes, they’re instantly hit by the desert sun, harsh winds trying to blow sand into them. Somehow, despite laying down, he’s moving. Eddie turns his face and finds the misplaced spines of his brother’s neck, turning into the body length frill typical of Sandwings.

“Dad, he’s moving.”

“Are his eyes open?”

The spines shift, and Eddie tries to squint up at his brother. Something’s different about his face, there’s bags under his eyes, with dark trails coming from them. Has he been crying? Freddie doesn’t cry about anything…

“Yeah, he’s awake.” Eddie can hear the sands around them shift as their dad comes into view, he’s holding the twins’ egg against his chest, held by some kind of home-made harness. “Oh moons above, you’re finally awake!” Python lifts Eddie up a bit to hug his neck, being careful about the egg.

“What’s going on? Why are we in the middle of the desert? And…” He looks around, nothing but wasteland. “Where’s… Mom?”

Freddie and Python look at eachother, Fred lets Eddie slide off his back gently and walks ahead, Python helps Eddie stand and get used to his legs again. No one’s explaining anything yet.

“Dad. Where’s mom?”

Python looks at the ground, and takes a deep breath. But he hesitates, making Eddie angry, shouldn’t he be allowed to know?

“Dad. Where is she?”

“Eddie-”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t know if yo- You  _ just _ woke up after dropping probably 50 feet onto stone! I’m not sure you can-”

“FUCKIN’ TELL ME!”

Python flinches, and Eddie can see Fred turn back to them, wide eyed. Why are they scared? Did they expect him to be calm? He just woke up from a concussion in the middle of nowhere, where both Hawk and his mother are missing, Eddie feels like he has every right to be pissed!

“Eddie… Earth and Hawk… Vulture killed them. He blamed them for Fred attacking his daughter, she pushed you off the building and-”

“No.”

“No? What are you saying no to? There’s noth-”

“You’re lying. You have to be lying. She could take on anyone, she wouldn’t have let a fucking  _ coward _ like Vulture kill her. She wouldn’t just leave her egg alone like that. She’s hiding somewhere, right? I woke up on my hatching day, and both mom and Hawk are hiding behind a dune to say “Happy hatching day, son! We’re moving FAR AWAY from that shithole!” Cobra said something about me turning 7, did I turn 7 yet? What day is it? And where’s mom?!”

Fred runs back to back up Python. “Eddie, they’re _ gone. _ I did something totally stupid, and got them killed! Just accept it and move on, we can’t stay here, or else Teddie’s going to overheat and die in his egg!”

That managed to shut him up. Keeping his head low, Eddie walks alongside his brothers, sister, and father. They constantly ask him to practice stretching his wings to see if he’s ready to fly, eager to get away from the Scorpion Den as quickly as possible.

\--

The Ice Kingdom is inhabitable.

The Sky Kingdom has a new law about killing “defective” dragonets (Even if they aren’t Skywings.)

The Mud Kingdom is too painful for Python.

The Sea Kingdom is inhabitable.

The Rainforest isn’t safe for a soon-to-be-hatching egg.

And they weren’t even going to try finding the Nightwings.

They were stuck in the desert, thankfully they were able to find Python’s hometown and buy back his old home. It’s weirdly not as nice as their house in the Scorpion Den, but it’s better than living in the desert with no access to water or shelter.

It was still furnished, as if no one touched it for the 10 years Python was gone. While he was bothered with how many of his family’s treasures got dirty, the first thing he had to focus on was the twin egg, holding Teddie, and his unknown sister. Eddie was wondering if he should think of a name for her, but nothing’s coming to him. It also just felt wrong without his mother to confirm that it was good for her…

So until the others find her in there, or Eddie thinks of something, she’ll simply be “Sister.”

\--

Of course it couldn’t have gone smoothly.

Of course Eddie had to lose someone else.

He doesn't give a shit if he didn’t technically “know” his sister at all, he’s been expecting her for the entire year, he was the only living dragon who knew she was in there.

Aside from Teddie.

When he hatched, he didn’t seem to share any Mudwing instincts Eddie had. Eddie watched carefully, hoping he would look around for other eggs. Instead, Teddie turned back to his own egg, and saw his sister crawling out of the hole he made. He hissed and attacked her, biting her neck until she couldn’t squeal anymore. Despite how fast Python acted in getting them separated, it was already too late.

Fred didn’t seem to connect with her, he didn’t even mourn for her, just shrugged and said “Saves us the trouble, at least” while Python only seemed interested in checking Teddie for wounds. Eddie screamed at them, holding his sister’s body. He tried to get it through their skulls that she’s been in there the whole time, she was growing healthy with Teddie and would have been perfectly fine if his little brother didn’t murder her.

Python looks guilty, but Fred only flinched whenever his voice spiked and got louder. The middle brother shakes his head. “Maybe there’s a reason she died so easily, she probably wasn’t strong enough to survive anyway. Besides, I think your aggressiveness rubbed off on Ted while he was still in the egg, all your screaming and stomping and-”

“ **MY** AGGRESSIVENESS? YOU COULDN’T CONTROL YOUR ANGER, AND NOW BOTH OF THEIR PARENTS ARE FUCKING DEAD! OUR MOTHER IS DEAD, HAWK IS DEAD, WE’RE BANISHED FROM THE HOME WE WERE RAISED IN, AND I’M MISSING A FUCKING HORN!”

“And some of your brain, clearly. I wasn’t the one who pushed you off the building, not my fault you decided to listen to their stupid dare! Cobra deserved losing a claw or two! They were scared of my stomach anyway.”

Both Eddie and Python stare at Fred. Python slowly speaks up “Freddie… What do you mean your stomach? You wouldn’t eat a dragon, they were scared of your  _ strength- _ ”

“Well, I ate her claws! Not as bad as one would think, also I’m pretty sure it was my appetite they were afraid of, I would always eat something in front of them, remember, Eddie?”

“... I’m burying Sister, then I’m going to my room to sleep. Goodnight.”

\--

It wasn’t long before Burn and her army swarmed into the family’s new home. Ted has just turned 2, and thankfully hasn’t shown any signs of aggression or violence like the day he hatched. Burn quickly avoided him, as he looks like a messed up Sandwing, but not a hybrid. To Burn, he wasn’t useful for the war, she couldn’t care how old dragons were, as long as they were capable, even if they were a year old.

Fred had to go into hiding whenever she was taking in recruits. Everyone knows about her opinions of the “Great Sandwing bloodline” so she would kill him as soon as she laid her eyes on him. Somehow, Fred was great at staying quiet and hiding his massive body, it's likely that she never knew he existed.

Eddie, however, has lost his graceful touch of avoiding everyone, everything, and staying out of trouble unless it looks for him. He has confidence in how “Sandwing-like” he looks now that all of his brown scales were shed, he didn’t care if Burn was recruiting for the war, he was going to go into the streets and continue life normally.

His clumsy tail smacks into everything and everyone, his lack of control in his strength gets everyone around him in a fit, and of course, he always manages to stumble into trouble at the worst of times. A Sandwing in some armor shoves Eddie away from his group, and Eddie falls right into someone’s jewelry stand. His anger spikes, and he charges at the soldier, knocking him nearly 20 feet away thanks to the buildup of his run.

The soldier’s group turns to stare, then their queen does as well. Her eyes bore into Eddie’s very soul, and she slowly stalks towards him. Burn was massive, maybe not as big as Fred, but it wouldn’t be long before she outgrew Eddie’s younger brother, as the older dragon. Eddie would have been terrified if he knew he was  _ supposed _ to be.

“Well, aren’t you strong, knocking over a trained soldier and sending him flying. Somewhat small for your kind of strength, misleading…” Burn suddenly smiles at him, a kind of smile that Eddie flinches from, something familiar but also… Lost.

Then, she just picks him up. While Eddie may have natural strength, Burn’s spent nearly her whole life increasing her’s, easily overpowering the smaller dragon.

When Eddie came back home, he was fitted in heavy armor and carrying a spear that kept falling out of his trembling claws.

\--

You  _ never _ get used to the smell of rotting dragon heads on pikes. Yet this is where Eddie needed to be, guarding Burn’s fortress while he could only imagine what his brothers are doing home without him. Probably celebrating that the dumbass is finally out of the house, while their dad heads to the bar wearing that stupid box over his head. He started wearing it shortly after Eddie was forced to join Burn’s army, is it because of him? Was he too ashamed to look at his son? Surely that’s not it, he took it off when it was dark enough in the house, but that could still point towards “Not wanting to see my child.”

A sharp claw taps his shoulder and he swiftly turns, pointing his spear at- Oh three moons it’s Burn. Thankfully after the first 5 times Eddie’s done this, Burn just gave up on smacking him across the head and just concluded that he doesn’t know how to recognize the wingbeat patterns of his queen.

“I’m going to the Mud kingdom, I need your strength. We’re going to a blacksmith with a high reputation.”

So without a word to his family, he had to travel across the continent. He’s never been outside of the desert before, he’s never seen so many colors just sitting in nature, green that was more vibrant than any cactus he’s ever seen, deep blue rivers, flowers coming in every color imaginable. The Skywings in the mountains were brilliant shades of orange and red, some of them saluting Burn and her army as they flew by. That’s right, they’re allies, alongside the Mudwings.

And they were going straight to the Mudwings. The only one Eddie’s ever met was Earth, but he was on edge about meeting more of them. He knew Earth was different from most Mudwings, they didn’t stay by their children, they didn’t care about other tribes, and their bond with their siblings are one of their strongest features.

The Mud kingdom isn’t quite what he expected, but that’s probably due to the fact that he didn’t know what swamps were. He knew Mud was a deep brown, you could sit in it like a bath, and it made you very very slow. He thought the entire kingdom would be him walking through rivers of mud to find this blacksmith, but there’s low hanging trees, wet grass and green rivers.

Burn leads her army into some sort of den built into a hill, carved out, with enough space to hold maybe 20 dragons with their wings spread out, and 10 of them standing on top of each other. It smells like there was a fire recently, maybe the blacksmith is busy?

His queen clears her throat and exclaims “Who is the blacksmith aiding my soldiers?” Several Mudwings point to a small tunnel, wide enough for Skywing wings to spread out, but too short for Burn to walk through without having to crawl. She knocks on the wall next to it, and they wait for the blacksmith to show up.

A very misshapen Mudwing steps out of the tunnel, wings tucked tightly to his sides, absolutely covered in mud. There’s spots of green along his face and sides, Eddie hasn’t seen any green Mudwings so far but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

“Well howdy there, are ya the princess who-”

“Queen. You will refer to me as Queen Burn, I will not tolerate anything else. Now, why are you covered in mud when you have a Queen to serve?”

“Ah wasn’t expectin’ yer visit, Queen Burn. Ah was havin’ a relaxing mud bath after working all night, didn’t have time t’ clean myself off.”

“Then go and make yourself proper.”

“Now- now- now hold on! Mah memory gits spotty, if ah go clean up now, ah’ll forget you’re here! Let’s do our business now, not like ya won’t get into some mud as soon as ya leave.”

They started to talk about business, but Eddie zoned out. Instead, he focused on the blacksmith’s voice. It was a little scratchy, sounded pretty young but not quite a dragonet, maybe about 7? Only 2 years younger than Eddie. He also shared the weird accent the Mudwings have, the one Earth lost as she tried to fit in with the Sandwings.

Uh oh, the blacksmith’s starting to speak with a touch of anger, probably time to zone back in.

“-is a big order, you know! Why, ah don’t even know how many dragons yer takin’ with ya!”

He talks really fast, Ed could only catch the end of it. Whatever he said to Burn, it made her angry, she’s flicking her tail everywhere. From the way the blacksmith glares at her as she turns, she probably said something three times as bad.

\--

This is stupid, this is dangerous, she’ll find out soon enough, she’ll kill him then his entire family.

Eddie stayed behind.

There was something about the Mud kingdom that felt like home, it felt safer than the desert ever has, even though his entire body is yelling at him to go back and sunbathe against the sand. He wasn’t going to make his first visit of his other tribe end up short and pitiful, only for business. The mud didn’t feel as nice as he’d imagine, but recalling what his father told him about the kingdom, he’s underreacting to it.

He got a few stares, probably because he shed his armor to seem casual, but no one was following him! Even better, no one was attacking him! Everyone seemed to stay in big groups, from 3 to 10, although 10 was very rare. This was probably the sibling bond Eddie heard about, the one where the first egg to hatch helped the other siblings out of their shells, and they stayed together for life.

Thinking about that kind of got him upset,  _ Eddie’s _ the first to hatch, if he helped Ted and Sister out of their egg, would he have stopped Ted from fighting her? Or did he just have a stronger Sandwing side than him?

A group walks by him, and Eddie can’t help overhearing to distract himself.

“- AH’M his Bigwings! He should tell me when he gits a terrifyin’ visit from queen Burn!”

Bigwings? That sounds a bit familiar.

“Calm down, Swamp. Ah know ya’ve basically adopted ‘im, but it ain’t like ya hatched his egg or anythin’. Ah’d be surprised if he knew ya decided t’ take him in! Lil Seawing can take care of himself, y’know?”

A Seawing? In the Mud kingdom? Aren’t they enemies? Maybe the Seawing was here longer than the war was going on… Yeah, that makes sense, neighboring kingdoms based on the maps, but why would he stick around?

The group is out of earshot, or maybe they got quieter when they realized Eddie was walking on the same road, either way, Eddie has nothing to distract himself again- Is that treasure?

There’s a sort of red puddle mixed in with some mud, and there’s bits of green floating on top of it. Is it an emerald? Who would abandon something like this? He hasn’t seen any accessories or treasure on the Mudwings, maybe they just don’t care?

Before Eddie can reach for it, the puddle begins to move  _ towards _ him. A dragon’s head rises from the mud, taking a deep breath before peering into Eddie’s dark eyes. Is that the blacksmith from before? The treasure seemed to have sunk under the mud, or maybe it was attached to his tail and he’s hiding it?

“Well, yer a terrible spy. Just took yer fancy and bad armor off, an’ started walkin’ around!”

Eddie’s still shocked that there’s a dragon in this mud. Although, that makes sense for  _ Mud _ wings…

“Howdy? Are ya deaf? Mute? Any reaction other than a shocked look?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, what’d you say?”

“Spy, yer a spy, a bad spy.”

“I’m not a spy! I’m just hanging around, not like Burn’s gonna miss me anyway… Or anyone else back home.”

The Mudwing tilts his head at Eddie, but seems to brush it off quickly. He turns to swim away, then the emeralds show up again, like tiny shark fins following a line. Maybe it’s some kind of tail accessory.

Eddie reaches for it this time, maybe he won’t miss it if it’s always going to be under mud?

As soon as his claws grace a piece of it, the Mudwing flinches and swims back around, growling.

Now is probably the time to fly back home before someone decides to match his strength, he doesn’t have the upper talon of genetics  _ here, _ afterall.

\--

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fUCK, FUCK!”

The halls of the fortress are confusing, Eddie doesn’t know how to get out of here. He could hop out of a window and fly over the walls, but everyone would be able to see him as the dragons here don’t normally hop out of windows.

The dragonet prophecy was told 5 years ago, and it made everyone in the army on edge as Burn has been angry for 5 whole years. She knew that either her sisters die, or she does, and even if she lives she has to “Bow to a power that’s stronger and higher.”

Every chance she could get, she would get rid of any dragonets that may be part of the prophecy, regardless of the fact that they would have to be hatched on Brightest night, and that the war would have to go for 20 years, first!

At some point, Eddie let his big dumb mouth run, bragging about the fact that his youngest brother was hatched from a-  _ somewhat- _ red Mudwing egg, so not only did his fellow soldiers know he was either a hybrid or related to one, but that there was a chance his little brother was a dragonet of destiny. Now everyone is chasing him, hoping to present this information to Burn for a reward.

“Fuck it, window!” He finally decided to hop into the courtyard and try outflying the guards noticing him. Of course he can’t, they have more experience than him flying in the open. For the whole 8 years that the war has been going on, Eddie’s been stuck as Burn’s personal guard, and only when she’s actually at the damn fortress! No one trusts him to stick by her if they ever traveled anywhere after the Mud kingdom trip.

Eddie lets his tail swing everywhere, stabbing whatever dragon he could reach. Some wings go numb, some legs dragging him down fall off of him, and any dragon he stabs in the head would just fall asleep and drop out of the air. But no one was dying, his venom wasn’t strong enough. Is that good or bad, not having to kill anyone to escape?

Someone grabs his tail, making sure it can’t even curl. Eddie starts to fall right into Burn’s claws, who holds his wings against his body as if he was nothing more than a doll. The scowl on her face will be burned into his memory more than Burn could ever actually burn him… Of course he has to chuckle at that little head-made joke, which only gets her angrier.

“Now then, who would have guessed my favorite bodyguard was not only a hybrid, but part of the prophecy?”

“I don’t think the prophecy mentioned a dumbass bigger brother fuckin’ shit up! I swear to the moons above-”

“Clearly.”

“Brightest night hasn’t even happened yet! Teddie’s 10! He’s not a dragonet anymore!”

“If the dragonets of destiny hatched on Brightest night, they would be 8 by the time the war was going on for 20 years, meaning they’re no longer dragonets. The prophecy is flawed, and I’m positive the Nightwings are lying just to mess with me, I need to destroy every chance there is to make it real.”

She drops Eddie, but keeps a claw on his tail, so not only can he  _ not _ stab, he can’t even fly away. “I know where your family lives, I’m going to go there, and kill your hybrid brother. If there’s evidence that you’re a hybrid too, you’re going with him.”

“NO!” Eddie throws all of his weight at Burn’s leg, managing to knock it off and get his tail free. He immediately stabs her in the heart, keeping it in the wound as long as he could to inject as much venom as he can. It manages to make her a bit woozy, even cough up some blood, but she’s still standing proudly.

“I was mistaken to think you had control over your venom, I thought you were too stupid to let some random soldiers die to save your family. Instead, you’re just defective.” She does that fucking grin again, the one that Eddie hates seeing. “My sisters don’t know that. I could still use you. What if we make a deal? I keep your brother alive, but he has to stay in my prison so he can’t fly off and complete the prophecy. In return, you keep working for me, charge my armies alongside me. If you disagree to this, I’m killing you.”

\--

It didn’t last long. Ted has what Eddie and Fred don’t.

_ Smarts. _

And also Fred’s strength that probably  _ barely _ outmatched Eddie’s. (Eddie’s been training for 8 years now, he probably has a chance at beating his brother in a fight!) They worked together to fight the guards and fly off to someplace they couldn’t follow, the Scorpion Den.

Eddie doesn’t know they’ve escaped, Burn didn’t want to seem incompetent, so she lied. She said that she got tired of them, and killed them, hoping it would discourage him from escaping  _ with _ his brothers if he had the chance.

He flew to the Scorpion Den the next night, taking the night shift and knocking out the guard that was with him.

\--

“I’m looking for a dragon named Vulture.”

“Now, why would you want to find that old pile of scales? He isn’t taking in new recruits, and if he was you would probably just dieeee.” This dragon had an oddly cheerful tone, considering she was stuck in one of the worst places in the world. Well, second worst in Eddie’s scrolls.

“Not if I kill him first.”

She burst out laughing, bringing the attention of other Sandwings. She pretended to wipe tears from her eyes. “KILL him? Oh, sweety, you can’t kill Vulture. No one can! I’m surprised you know about  _ him _ , but not about his “Talons of Power” that kill dragonets for fun!”

Eddie flinches. “I… Forgot about them. It’s weird to think that he  _ needs _ an army…”

“Now move along, looks like my  _ favorite _ customer needs services!”

A familiar voice quickly yells “I don’t want your stupid dance lessons, Sugar!”

Eddie turns his head, looking at the brown and pale yellow hybrid staring back at him, next to a bright yellow Mudwing. Before the other two can react, Eddie leaps in front of them and wraps his wings around them, letting a few tears fall.

“HOLY SHIT YOU’RE ALIVE YOU’RE BOTH ALIVE-”

“Eddie-”

“Why wouldn’t we be alive? I wasn’t going to let my  _ meals _ trap  _ me _ !”

“OH THREE MOONS YOU’RE JUST AS CREEPY AS ALWAYS!”

They manage to hug Eddie back, confusing the crowd around them, but Ted’s flicking tail seems to scare them off. Finally, they pull apart, only to have Eddie grab their faces to make sure that they’re real. Sugar taps Eddie’s shoulder then nudges him away, handing a… Scavenger? To Ted?

The scavenger holds his paws out, and says,  _ in Dragon; _ “Nice family reunion, but you promised me an onyx?” Ted rolls his eyes and digs around his pouch for the shiny black gem. He gently hands it to the scavenger, who then gives him a tiny book.

“Really?”

“Hey, I may be able to write in Dragon, but I can’t draw them in huge letters like everyone else! I worked hard on this book, you know!”

“Yeah, sure, hopefully I can actually see it.”

Eddie gapes at them, scavengers can speak Dragon? They can write? They can make books like they’re not one of the rarest and most valuable ways to hold information?  _ TED IS SQUEAKING AT THE SCAVENGER SO NO ONE ELSE CAN UNDERSTAND THEM?  _ **_SCAVENGERS HAVE THEIR OWN LANGUAGE THAT DRAGONS CAN LEARN?_ **

Sugar giggles at Eddie’s confusion, then wraps a wing around his back. “Well, since you’re apparently related to my two best customers, I might as well show you  _ everything _ that scavengers can really do!”

“We’re not scavengers! We’re called-” Then he squeaks something in Scavenger, since Eddie doesn’t know what the language is  _ actually _ called.”

“Yeah yeah-” Another squeak, a name? Sugar starts dragging Eddie into her home, thankfully his brothers follow, he isn’t too keen on leaving them behind this time.

\--

Fred yawns for the fifth time tonight. “Eddie, stop pacing, she’s going to be fine.” But that didn’t stop Eddie from pacing in front of the doctor’s office. A few more years have passed, and the Scorpion Den has changed for the better. It got a new ruler, Thorn. Vulture and his group have gone missing, which is as good as dead for Eddie, and everyone seemed to be getting nicer. Brightest night has happened, but Eddie hasn’t heard a single word about the prophecy since he got here, maybe it was forgotten?

Either way, things are better and calmer, he and Sugar got closer, Eddie may be having a dragonet at the age of 23, which was  _ too soon _ for him. Although plenty of dragons get eggs before 20, some even decide that 10’s old enough, Eddie wasn’t sure how he’d do as a father instead of an older brother.

The door opens, and the doctor beckons for Eddie to follow him. He’s taken to Sugar’s room, who’s just laying politely on a table with her wings tucked in. She smiles at Eddie, and Eddie smiles back, although nervously.

She hasn’t grown at all, which got her and Eddie concerned enough to head to a doctor. It’s been months, and she still shows no signs of carrying an egg. The doctor shoves a freshly written scroll into Eddie’s claws, says “I’ll leave you newly weds to figure it out” and leaves as Sugar shouts “We’re not married or dating we’re just stupid!!” Now  _ that _ part took forever to figure out, but they eventually landed on “Friendship” with a few things that they forgot to prepare for.

Eddie takes a look at the scroll, then rereads it, then reads it again, and again. Maybe there’s a mistake? Sugar’s perfectly healthy, and that’s wonderful! It says that she  _ can _ carry an egg.

But she’s not.

Eddie looks up at Sugar, who stopped smiling after seeing his expression. “Hey, you’re sad, aren’t you happy that we don’t have to drop everything? Especially since we aren’t dating? No surprise egg to hatch in the middle of the Scorpion Den, with two parents that aren’t in love?”

He forces himself to smile back. “It’s probably the best for them, but… Well…” Eddie shakes out his wings and takes a deep breath.

“The issue is with me, so I  _ can’t _ get a dragonet even if I’m ready…”

\--

The war was going to end about a year early. The dragonets, nearly 7, gathered the three battling queens to finally pick a new ruler. Turns out,  _ no one _ was chosen,  _ they _ had to work out their issues and figure things out.

Burn was the first to die, which made a small part of Eddie extremely happy, he just wished he didn’t have to see her choke on air as she died from the dragonbite viper venom. Blister and Blaze, who he’s only seen in this moment, started fighting. Blaze is trying to run away, while Blister plays with her like a cat with a mouse.

The Dragonets of Destiny, one of which was clearly  _ not _ a Skywing once she decided to stop pretending to be, were digging for some kind of treasure, alongside a tiny human woman who was gesturing and pointing at Queen Oasis’s grave.

Once the treasure is free, Blister grabs it, then disintegrates. Blaze survives.

It took awhile for dragons to leave the “arena.” The entire continent was here, so he might as well explore the other tribes while he could.

Icewings were an oddity for him, he never managed to fight them, so he had no clue that they really exist. Nearly all of them could be described as “Cold, angry, and spiky.”

Skywings sometimes came to Burn’s fortress to give her news. To Eddie, they were just a mountain type of Sandwing, aside from their spikes and lack of barbs, they’re probably the closest tribe to Sandwings.

The Mudwings were even nicer to him this time, or maybe it’s because the group he talked to claimed to be the brothers of the dragonet of destiny, the blood colored egg. Judging from how Clay took Firescales directly to his leg and survived, then the legends of fireproof scales were true.

Seawings were a bit weird, they were also the first to leave the arena. Their queen only came to see the outcome of the war, so all of her Seawings were complaining that they shouldn’t be in the desert, and should repair the Summer Palace. That place seems familiar, he probably overheard it somewhere, not that he can go anywhere filled to the brim with salt water.

Rainwings were new, he hasn’t even heard of them until now. They’re colorful, peaceful, nice, and one gave him some fruit she kept from her home. It tastes good.

The Rainwings apparently had new neighbors. Nightwings. If two moons weren’t full, with a moon-bright comet shining in the sky, he wouldn’t have even seen them sitting next to him during the fight. Some looked sad and unhealthy, taking deep breaths of fresh air, and sharing food with their “Rainwing guard” assigned to them from their new queen. Others were angry, either staring at the Rainwing in the arena tending to her Mudwing brother, probably the queen, or they were staring at the pile of ash that used to be Blister. Maybe she was allied with them secretly?

It was an eventful night, one he shared with both his entire family, Sugar, Zacharie, and every tribe in Pyrrhia. Eddie, Fred, and Ted were the last few dragons to leave, Python was getting worried about how the comet seemed to be getting brighter and brighter each hour, so he went home to sit in the dark. Sugar said that Zacharie wasn’t used to staying up so late, which was a lie, she probably just wanted to go to sleep herself.

The brothers stare up at the three moons and the comet, Ted jokes that this could have been the “brightest night” the entire time, so maybe there’s a real dragonet team with a Skywing being hatched right now.

“But what about the “Of three sisters who Blister, Blaze, and Burn. Two shall die and one shall learn”? Blister and Burn are already dead, I guess the eye of Onyx was the power that’s stronger and higher… Or maybe Queen Thorn?”

Eddie chuckles “You’re already calling her queen?”

“Duh! The Onyx didn’t kill her, first of all! And second, Queen Thorn has been ruling the Scorpion Den for 5 years now! It almost seems natural to call her “Queen”, you know?”

Ted wraps his long tail around both of his brothers, sitting to both of their left. “I’m not so sure about that. She’ll be a wonderful ruler, but she was also the casual type of dragon. Everyone just called her Thorn, no titles or anything, and even when Sunny was declaring her queen, she still called her mom.”

Fred barks a laugh. “Imagine Thorn! Actually having a daughter sweeter than Sugar! Another hybrid, too! I overheard the Nightwings mentioning that her father was an animus dragon, Stonemover, I think.”

Eddie tilts his head “Animus?”

“You know, magic.”

“I’ve never heard…”

“You really need to read more scrolls.”

“Not unless I’m going to meet some kind of animus, otherwise the knowledge is useless to me.”

\--

“FRED! STOP CHASING THE HUMAN!”

“YOU’RE SQUEAKING AGAIN!”

“Fred, you know Zacharie as much as I do, you know that the Scavenger word for scavenger is human.”

“CAN’T HEAR YOU! I HAVE A SNACK TO EAT!”

“ **I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU EAT AN INNOCENT HUMAN! YOU CAN’T JUST BITE THE HEADS OFF OF EVERY ANIMAL THAT ENTERS THE HOUSE! ONE OF THESE IT’S GOING TO BE A PET!** ”

“He already ate one of my cats.”

“ **YOU ALREADY ATE ONE OF TEDDIE’S CATS!** ”

There’s a loud crashing sound, and the clacks of Fred’s claws hitting the stone floor stop. Eddie follows the sound to find an old shelf has fallen over, alongside a precious heirloom, which lay on the ground in maybe 10 pieces.

Fred looks at Eddie, then the heirloom, then he nudges the human closer to it and points at them. “Scavenger's fault!”

Eddie can feel his anger spiking, who does he think he is? Breaking one of dad’s most important items, hidden away to be  _ protected _ , and now he’s going to blame the poor human that wandered into their home, hungry and confused?

But he lets out a deep breath, pushing it down, and calmly says “I’ll get this fixed… But I’m not letting this slide, let the human go, tell dad what happened, and also maybe find someone that knows how to fix hundreds of years old weapons…”

He’ll rant about this to Sugar later, she’s always willing to lend an ear to him, even if he doesn’t think his anger is worth listening to. It helps, however, Fred seems to be happier around him, and Ted doesn’t constantly tell him that he’s being bothersome. That’s all he needs.

Although, the recommendation he got for this weapon is pretty far, in Possibility. This blacksmith better be the real deal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wz2ggbjQGA


	3. Winglet: Lashing Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fred's PoV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Winglet takes place before the main story and isn't necessary to read.

He was expecting the day to come. The day when Eddie finally opens his big dumb mouth to his “boss” and gets Fred in trouble.

But he didn’t think Teddie would be here, too.

The Sandwing guards collected them, saying that they were invited to have a personal audience with Queen Burn, but of course they were lying. They were tied up and knocked out as soon as Fred tried to flee and take Ted with him. Somehow, they knew what they were dealing with, despite being surprised that he was clearly half Mudwing. Eddie, whatever you said to Burn, you were going to  _ pay. _

When Fred woke up again, he was in a small cell with a tiny nest and an embarrassing amount of food rations. He would have eaten them regardless, but in this exact situation? He doesn’t know what they did to the food. He’ll have to eat a few dozens of coyotes in the wild later.

He looks at the fire-proof bars to see if there're any guards stationed there. Just one, if Fred could find a way out he could easily take him on. If there’s enough space between the bars, he might try to stab him with his tail. Although, it won’t do much if his strength doesn’t knock him out initially, Fred doesn’t have any venom thanks to being Mudwing dominant.

There’s footsteps echoing through the hall, and Fred’s guard starts to look curious about something. Heading to the nest, Fred curls up and pretends to have fallen asleep, acting woozy on the way there for good measure. He points an ear at the commotion, trying to make it seem like it’s naturally resting.

“What does Burn want us to do with the prisoners? She wouldn’t allow hybrids in her kingdom.”

“She wants us to keep them alive, apparently her strongest guard is their brother so she’s going to keep them hostage so he can keep working for her.”

“A hybrid working  _ with _ us?”

“It’s Eddie.”

“Guess that explains the tail and brains…”

“There’s something else, too. Apparently the youngest was born from a blood red egg, he could be part of the prophecy. Burn wants to keep a close eye on him to make sure that he doesn’t go out and fulfill it.”

“But Brightest night-”

“Just do as she says, you don’t want to end up like her brothers, right? You’ve seen the look on Prince Smolder’s face.”

“Got it. Go and get some more food, if she wants them alive, she has to make sure that their Mudwing diets are kept up.”

The guards salute each other, then return to their previous duties. The idea of food is promising, and it’s also giving Fred his  _ own _ idea. He crawls out of the nest and stomps over to the guard, almost pressing his face against the bars.

“So-”

The guard flinches and swiftly turns around, tail ready to strike. “Get away from the lock, you are not permitted to speak to me, no matter what you say I will not let you out.”

“I’m not going to leave anyway! No matter where you hit me with that thing, I’ll die, and clearly we can’t be having that!”

“You’re the middle brother, Burn wants the youngest.”

“But I’m also bait for the oldest, aren’t I~?”

He seems to lower his guard, ironically, and lets his tail rest. But he simply turns back to sit the way he was before. Fred had to piece some things together to find a way out. The guard was clearly curious, being the first to speak. He’s also frightened easily, knowing that there’s a Mudwing in the cell behind him but still flinching and getting ready to attack when a single word is said. He wants to follow orders, even putting aside his own questions when he has to.

Fred imitates a stomach gurgling sound with an awkward growl, making the guard look back again. He just puts on his best innocent and sick face.

“Well, I hope you guys know what we like to eat, otherwise I’ll just  _ starve! _ And we can’t have that! Mudwings have very big stomachs, you know, and Sandwings eat  _ sooo _ little and eat all those  _ tiny _ lizards! If only you had someone who could tell you what was the right diet, so you don’t have your prisoner die of starvation~!”

“I’m not letting you out.”

“Oh, you don’t have to! I’m just saying, maybe a vulture or two would do the trick, feed me until you manage to collect  _ much _ more to spare? Just know that they have to be pretty large creatures. And hey! I’m a quiet eater, the longer I eat, the less I bother you!”

The guard sighs. “I’ll see what I can do, but don’t have any expectations.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it!”

When a chef comes with Fred’s small ration, the guard tells him the situation. Two hours later, he returns with two freshly killed camels.

“If you want them cooked, do it yourself. Both of your tribes have fire.”

“I do indeed have fire, but I can’t eat them from in here while they’re out there! I’ll stay waaaaaay back and let you come inside with the camels. They can’t possibly fit through the bars!”

He was right, of course. Fred got lucky enough to have this chef find two of the largest desert animals for him, probably on request of the guard, so the only way to bring them to the prisoner was to shove both of them through the door, which meant physically coming inside the cell in order to get them far away enough from the door to shut it.

And he does just that, as predicted. Who needs Nightwing prophecies?

They didn’t expect him to be as fast as a Sandwing, with his massive body and sluggest movements. They didn’t expect him to be smart enough to pretend that he’s easy to pick on.

Instead of making a run for it, he should probably make sure that they don’t alert any other guards. It’s just the three of them in the hallway, no one but the chef to witness, and he’ll be next anyway.

Fred easily knocks the helmet off the Sandwing, and bites right into the other’s neck, stomping on his tail so hard that the bones shatter and the scales nearly rip apart. With a giant rip, he snaps the head right off of the guard, chewing on his neck while looking for the keys. The chef starts screaming, of course, so Fred uses his wings to knock him down and stab his heart with his tail. There may be no venom, but it’s still as sharp as a spear.

With all witnesses dead, and finishing one of the  _ actual _ biggest creatures in the desert for dinner, Fred grabs the keys and starts scanning the other cells. They’re mostly empty, but from the looks of it, he’s also on the deepest and most secure layers. Why did Burn think it was necessary to place two hybrids down here?

Then he remembers that he ate an entire dragon and escaped with the keys.

That’s probably why.

He finds another dragon but… No, she’s not what he’s looking for. Looks like she’s been here for a bit, she’s quietly muttering “I’m not Palm, I’m not Palm.” Sorry, sad dragon, but there’s no room for you.

It takes a bit longer to find Ted’s cell, so he’s half worried that someone’s discovered the bodies by now. His little brother is calmly laying towards the bars, with his tail coiled up behind him, and his front paw laying over the other politely.

“Took you awhile.”

“I was hungry.”

“Spare me the details.” He stands up and shakes his wings out. “Let’s find Eddie and get out of here.”

With no time to lose, they start running towards any exit they can find, although with how oddly empty it is around here, Fred’s free to ask questions.

“What do you mean find Eddie? He sold us out!”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean to, you know how he is.”

“If he doesn’t know how to keep quiet, then he shouldn't be a damn soldier for the war!”

“He didn’t have a choice, you know this.”

Sunlight finally starts filling their eyes, the sky is open, and swarming with soldiers. Time to go.

Fred launches himself into the air, barreling into some guards and knocking them out of the sky, before looking back to find Ted covered in them. He tries to fly out of there, but his long thick tail has maybe three Sandwings holding on, dragging him back to the prison.

He tries to dive down, maybe push them off or stab the ones trying to stab  _ Ted _ , but something just… Happens.

Ted’s tail starts swinging all over the place, knocking some soldiers unconscious and even jabbing a few. His claws start tearing apart scales and skin. His fire was hot enough to melt the cheap helmets, fusing them with their horns.

Ted’s never shown what weapons he gained genetically, having two perfectly split halves of his tribes. Turns out, he has the venom, strength, endurance,  _ combined fire power, _ and anger that killed 10 Sandwings in just a few heartbeats.

Fred flies closely, carefully, and grabs Ted’s tail. Thankfully, his little brother still recognizes him, and calms down. The guards are terrified. Fred drags him over the scavenger-proofed walls of Burn’s fortress, fleeing easily as the rest of the Sandwings try to tend to their fallen friends.

Once they’re about half a day’s away, Fred manages to talk to Ted.

“... What in the three moons was that?”

But his brother doesn’t respond. Looking over, he finds Ted mindlessly staring at the dunes below, tucking his talons close to his chest. All four of his legs, his tail, and even some of his snout is covered in blood. That’s going to be a pain to wash off later. How was he going to explain that he needs to use the town’s oasis to wash off that much blood? He’s never had a history of violence, so they’d be suspicious.

Well, they don’t know what he did to their sister while she was still halfway in her egg.

… Maybe he should be concerned about his well being, actually.

“Ted… Are you okay? After all that?”

“... They’re going to find us back home…”

“Probably, but we can take them-”

“We’re only going home to tell dad that we’re going to the Scorpion Den.”

Fred stops flying to hover, genuinely shocked. Why in the world would Ted ever want to go to that horrid place? Did he not take the stories seriously?

“Teddie-”

“It’s going to be safer than anywhere else in the desert. It’s the place where Burn’s enemies are, but she can never get in! I… I heard that there was a change of power. It’s going to be better than what you and Eddie went through. And when we’re there, we’re going to wait for him, because he didn’t do anything wrong, and I just know that he won’t abandon us.”

“...”

Fred starts flying again, a little faster than usual.

“Then let’s be quick with dad, it’ll take about a day to fly there.”

Ted gives a slight smile, trying to match Fred’s pace.

“We’ll be safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All my winglets are very short, so hopefully they aren't going to be too bothersome to read when you... Gotta (Or at least know which PoVs are which winglets cuz that'll be important later)
> 
> (Spoilers but
> 
> they're gonna be the arc 2 povs when I actually finish writing it)


	4. Winglet: Too Much

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flo's PoV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Flo's here!  
> This'll be somewhat important in later chapters, but for now it's basically filler.

Everything's warm. It’s always warm. Not just warm. It’s hot. Hot. Hot. Hot.

Stuck in the snow, melting everything around him. His parents have gone too far into the kingdom of ice. Impaled by a magic cliff, killing anything that isn’t an Icewing. Florence survived, the spears were ice, they didn’t even hit him before they melted.

Stayed in the ice kingdom until he turned 20, surviving on wolves and arctic fish. The cold didn’t bother him, he didn’t even feel it, not unless he was submerged in the frozen oceans, but the steam would risk Icewings finding him. They aren’t like him but opposite, they were just dragons with frost instead of fire. He could still burn them. He’s killed a few that were looking to bring him to their home, their own source of fire that could survive the harsh environment without the need of an animus dragon.

His father left him all sorts of medical scrolls, each one designed to work around Flo’s fire. The paper is bound to tiny pillars of stone with long handles. The weight of the other pillar will unroll the paper, as the top sits on two stone brackets embedded in the cave.

Some scrolls Flo burned in his sleep, sometimes hanging on the brackets as his tail flicks over and turns it to ashes. Most of them survived, and from those, Flo’s knowledge expanded to that of a professional nurse.

Not that he’s found a way to put it to use, but it's better to read and reread instead of watching the snowfall for the whole day.

Although one of the nights that he gets bored of reading, he can see a figure in the distance. Is that another Skywing? No Icewing has red on them, neither do the Sandwings that moved in when he was a little dragonet. At least, his parents said that they were Sandwings.

It also had green, brighter than the grass he saw during his first few days of life. He hasn’t heard of any dragon with such opposite colors. He can’t just let something so  _ new _ go that easily. So, he follows it.

It’s another dragon, looking almost like a Skywing with wings similar to Flo’s, but his body was much fatter, also shorter. The dragon heads to the Sandwings’ hideout, knocking rapidly while shivering. Flo knows that it’ll take a while for them to answer, they’re suspicious of everything, but the poor dragon might freeze to death. There’s something weird about him, like he’s… Lacking fire?

Flo lands silently behind him, the snow melting into steaming water. Carefully, he stands behind the other dragon, who’s pretty small. He isn’t shivering anymore, although he does get a little suspicious, turning to see the source of the heat. Flo’s too quick for him, and they start turning circles around each other. There’s stomping from inside the hideout, so Flo flies away.

He’ll have to keep an eye on the hideout until he can confront the dragon.

  
  
  


When did he leave?

It’s been months, and when Flo decided to see if he could find him through the windows of the hideout, but saw him flying back to the desert in the distance. Why is he leaving? Did something happen?

He can’t follow him  _ there. _ He was told to never leave the Ice kingdom. NEVER. Otherwise he’ll set the world on fire.

But what’s the point of having so much fire if he can’t use it?

But it’ll put other dragon’s lives at risk.

But he has a life too, he deserves to be happy and explore, doesn’t he?

He chases after the odd dragon.

  
  
  


If he stood in one place for a while, the sand would turn into sharp pieces of a transparent jewel. Although it would have to take a pretty long time, and he’d have to ALWAYS touch it. Sleeping on sand overnight would result in him almost getting stuck in the self-made treasure, but it would easily shatter.

Flo lost track of his dragon, he couldn’t rest anywhere without getting melted sand stuck between his scales, and when he touched a weird pointy plant it exploded in his face! The plant even got spiky balls sticking out of his scales, but they would easily burn away.

He needed to get out of this desert, but he doesn’t know where to go. He can’t go to the mountains, the Sky kingdom is there, and his parents said that the queen tried to kill him when he was a hatchling.

Everything else was covered in forest or grass or plants, and Flo just  _ can’t _ go there, or he’ll burn the whole continent down. There’s a town mostly made of stone next to some rivers, maybe he can stay there?

Flying overhead to find a proper place to land, Flo spots him! His mystery dragon of pink and green! Without thinking ahead, he dives down to step in front of him.

The dragon still has those red goggles on his face, how can he see through them? He clearly can, because as soon as he looks up, he finds the ball of fire heading right towards him, and he screams. Thankfully, the road is made of cobble, using pretty large batches of rocks! It would have to take  _ a pretty long time _ for any of them to even start melting!

“Hi!!”

“ **AAAAAAAA** ”

This dragon was extremely scared of Flo, or maybe his fire? Or maybe because he’s a dragon  _ on _ fire? So, he sits, trying to look like the least threatening thing in the world, but it doesn’t work. He stops screaming, but now he’s muttering swears under his breath, trying to find a way out. There’s not enough space to spread his wings without bumping into Flo, and Flo knows for a fact that would kill him in just a couple of minutes. Somehow, it doesn’t occur to Flo to just step back, give him space, and let him go.

Looks like the dragon was almost finished building a house, he’s even carrying wood. Not a good building material for a home, Flo was pretty sure that most dragons living in the desert could still breath fire?

He tries to just turn and run, but some of the wood touches Flo, instantly lighting up. He does the smart thing and drops it, but it reaches the rest of his home.

Other dragons instantly hop in, with Icewings blowing frostbreath on the fire, and a few Mudwings hopping in and trying to save anything that looks valuable, giving it to the mystery dragon.

Said mystery dragon turns back to Flo with an angry face.

Uh oh…

  
  
  


“Alright, 4 walls, a ceiling, a floor, all made of stone. Now ah just need one more thing from ya.”

“Please don’t tell me it involves more lifting?”

For the past few months, Flo’s been helping the dragon rebuild his home, Huaso, he’s called. Huaso has given him a surprising gift, even after ruining most of his work before. Originally, they were fire-proofed metal wires, Huaso has magic and enchanted them to take away the firescales whenever they were wrapped around the Skywing’s horns. But then, Flo showed him the melted sand, and it gave Huaso an idea. Once he had enough space to get to work, he had Flo help him turn them into tiny rectangles, then fitted the wires with them, making sure they both shared the same enchantment.

Huaso said that it was called glass, it was incredibly rare, as they haven’t had enough fire strong enough to melt it unless it involved multiple dragons working for days on end to get a big batch of it. All Florence had to do was sit on a pile of it, and use his own enhanced fire to keep it melted and change it to whatever shape he wanted. For some reason, Huaso turned the pair of glasses blue, maybe to see what they would look like? Flo said he wanted to keep the color, it’s familiar to him.

Right now, the glasses are fit snugly on his snout, allowing Flo to sit on the cushions Huaso has laying around.

“Ah’m gonna need ya t’ take those off real quick.”

Flo quirks an eyebrow. “But… Then everything in here would burn up?”

“Well, not there, obviously, ah need ya t’ melt every corner in here to make sure that it’ll stay strong and welded.”

“But that’ll take forever!”

“Frankly, ah don’t want a ceiling of stone t’ crash into me while ah sleep.”

Flo reluctantly heads to a corner, takes off his glasses, and presses himself against it. This is going to take a week if he’s quick enough, maybe a month if Huaso  _ really _ wants everything merged together perfectly.

But it’ll all be worth it, he finally has a friend, someone who truly cares about him after his years in isolation.

And with his gift, he could finally put his knowledge to use.


	5. Winglet: Eyes Only

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lepi's PoV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I UH...ALMOST FORGOT TO POST THIS ONE...  
> SHORT AND SOMEWHAT SWEET  
> LEPI FANS ENJOY

“Lepipallor.”

_ Cherry. _

“I’m surprised you bothered to meet with me here, considering how early it is in the morning.”

Lepi puffs out his chest in pride.  _ I happen to be a morning bird.~ Now, you said you had a… Gift? _

Cherry nods and gives Lepi a bracelet pouch, clearly holding something a bit heavy.

“Kinkajou gave this to me, saying she didn’t need it anymore and that the enchantments from Darkstalker don’t work on anyone other than her, so it’s simply decoration now. Don’t open it up just yet, wait until the end of the day, prove your patience.”

Lepi grins and puts the pouch on.  _ Some kind of fun game, right? _ But Cherry doesn’t respond, and there’s a dull thud coming from his head. He says it again, keeping his composure. No response. A small headache begins to stir.

Cherry catches on and smiles, then laughs a little. It makes Lepi’s heart flutter… Until he hears the next thing to come out of her mouth. “I  _ knew _ that would shut you up! Skyfire really is wondrous, isn’t it? I saw the comet it came from, escorting our new Queen to the arena of the Sandwing Sisters. Don’t take it off, maybe I’ll feel sorry enough for you by the end of the day, and we can hang out more.” She flies off, unable to hear Lepi call out to her, but it ends up as a mumble.

_ What am I supposed to do now? _ He thinks to himself, although he’s still trying to project his thoughts. It hurts, the more he tries. How in the world did this skyfire work? Just a piece of rock from a comet can block his mind projection?  _ I’m not going to take it off, while it may be the bottom of the barrel, pity might be my only way in, the only way for her to see me for who I am if she bothered to stick by my side. _

_ Maybe she wants me to talk with my actual voice, proving that I’m real? _ Some Nightwings have pressured him into using his voice, unsuccessfully he might add. He’ll just have to practice! By the end of the day, it won’t matter if he’s wearing skyfire or not!

Yet whenever he tries to say anything, his own name, Cherry’s name, any animal he happens to see, his throat screams at him to stop.  _ More practice then, until it doesn’t hurt anymore. _ In the meantime, he could resort to an old hobby while he was hiding in the rainforest. He climbs the trees and keeps a sharp eye on the forest floor. Slowly, more animals are revealed to him. Frogs hopping to rivers, hiding in the green. Beetles flying from tree to tree. A few butterflies flocking around a group of flowers.

He keeps his attention on the butterflies. Those were always his favorite, they were elegant little things. This particular group was Blue Morphos, which seemed easy to say, easier than “butterfly” at the moment.

“Buh.”

_What am I, a hatchling?_ _BUH? How do you pronounce the L? Ulll… Luuu… Just say blue! You KNOW how it sounds! BLUE! BLUE MORPHOS!_

“Bl… Blagh”

_ THERE’S NO G! This is going nowhere. How am I so useless at speaking? Even a day old hatchling knows how to mimic its parents. Maybe I need examples, but I can’t go back to the villages like this! And if I take it off, I’ll lose Cherry’s trust… _

Birds squawk overhead, sometimes chirping or singing songs. One poor lonely bird has to keep repeating itself, obviously not finding the right mate. Lepi only now notices that he’s whistling along with it.  _ I don’t remember being able to do that. _

He listens in on a toucan clicking its beak, and mimics that as well. It sounded natural. He does it again, and again, and finds that a young toucan has landed on his snout. It’s feathers press against his nose, and he sneezes it off. Lepi watches as it flaps away. Sad, it seemed to like him.

He lays in the tree, mimicking anything he hears, practicing it until his throat goes from unused to sore. The moons peak through the tree canopy, and Lepi starts to doze off, although his limbs angrily scream at him for refusing to move for the entire day.

Lepi glides out of the tree, and curls up to sleep more comfortably.

  
  
  


There’s a slow claw poking his wings, then a mass of fur clings to his neck. Lepi raises his head to look at the soft round face of a sloth. It squeaks at him and continues to poke his snout and ears.

_ Well,  _ “EEE” _ to you, too. I wasn’t aware I was a Rainwing? _

It squeaks again and continues to hug Lepi, refusing to leave him alone. Well, he might as well find Cherry, clearly a full day has passed by now. Every step of the way, the sloth kept squeaking and yelling in his ear, but this only encouraged Lepi to squeak back. Oddly enough this satisfies the sloth.

Suddenly, the foliage in front of Lepi turns into a bright gold and red. Cherry seems to remember that he’s been in the forest this whole time and actually bothered to check up on him! She looks at the sloth sitting on his neck for a while, confused, but ignores it to address Lepi.

“So, you’re still wearing the pouch… You actually did it?”

Lepi grins and stands pridefully again, trying to project, but the dull headache makes him nod instead. Cherry seems genuinely surprised. Then, she points at the sloth.

“And you found yourself a pet while you were out here?”

“Grr…” Lepi growls, then stops himself.  _ That was rude, especially to Cherry! _ He wanted to say that the sloth wasn’t a pet, just a creature who took interest in another creature, but he couldn’t form the words and resorted to growling.  _ What was that, a panther growl? _

Another surprised look. She grabs Lepi’s front paw to take off the pouch, slowly, waiting for an explosion of noise to take over her mind. Silence. Lepi was waiting for her to say something again, maybe he can mimic what she’s already said in order to form a sentence? Instead, she points rapidly at his bare leg.

_ Oh, yeah. _ He projected. It felt like a weight was lifted from his wings, the headache was gone completely!  _ So, how was THAT for patience? _

“Pretty good, actually. I’m impressed. How was the wild treating you, Nightwing?”

_ It was quite nice to me! Very peaceful, the animals treated me better than fellow Nightwings. _

“Sorry to hear that, the last bit.”

… _ However, I would like to rest in a nest again, can you escort me back to my village? _

“What? You can do it yourself!”

_ I’d appreciate your company. _

“Fine, then. I suppose what I did to you was… Pretty mean. So I should at least try and make up for it.” She says with a little bit of scorn in her voice. Lepi couldn’t be happier. They walk back to the Nightwing village together, neither of them saying or thinking a single word to the other.

The Nightwings aren’t staring weirdly at Lepi today, they seem to be focused on something else,  _ someone _ else. Someone just as blue and white as Lepi, but most definitely not a Nightwing.

What’s an Icewing doing, showing off his magic to scared Nightwings?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should mention this was only 3 pages in my original document, and that one has two spaces between paragraphs instead of one.
> 
> That's probably why I forgot to post it, I postponed it cuz I knew it would be easy as fuck to edit
> 
> Whoops


	6. Winglet: Animus Moron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lenny's PoV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's midnight to it's technically Tuesday!
> 
> The "Bad Timeline" will come another day.

A tiny blizzard staying over his paws.

A show of lights above their horns.

And perhaps a little charm to calm those terrified faces.

That would be a last resort enchantment, maybe if the queen tries to kick him out, or if someone decided to get violent. Lenny didn’t understand why the Nightwings were so scared of him, when he was trying to show them that his soul was protected and that his magic can be used for good! After all, he was an Icewing, the most disciplined tribe in animus usage. Ignore the fact that he hasn’t been trained past his soul protecting necklace, he’ll just come back days later with even more to show!

At first, he wanted to go straight home and show queen Snowfall his powers, but he decided to see where those animus tunnels were first. So, he enchanted an animal bone he found to show him the way to the closest tunnel. It led him to the Nightwing village of the rainforest. It was the perfect time to change their minds about animus magic!

Some of the Nightwings flinch and step aside. Odd, are they mind readers? Icewings in the second or first circle know that the silver scale behind their eyes would indicate that. These dragons lack said scale so they probably aren’t. Not to mention that they’ve lost their powers… Well, until he thought so until he heard someone yell  _ WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! _

‘Well, what  _ am _ I doing?’ He thought, but didn’t get a response, so not a mind reader?

“Well, what  _ am _ I doing?” He says outloud, more Nightwings step aside to reveal an Icewing- no, his eyes are too bright, his horns are too straight, his scales aren’t nearly as sharp or even layered correctly. This is a Nightwing, with those silver teardrops scales, barely visible under the sun.

_ I thought Icewings lost all of their animi, Prince Arctic was the last full-blooded Icewing to have it, and it was transferred to the Nightwings, and perhaps to Sandwings once again if Sunny has Arctic's genes this far down the line. _

“You’re certainly quite noisy, and it appears you were all mistaken~. Or maybe I wasn’t born with these powers? I’m not telling you~!”

The bright Nightwing growls and flares his wings, there’s no chill coming off of them, and he appears to have fire from the smoke that’s rising from his nostrils. He’s not even a hybrid, so what’s wrong with him?

“You have those silver scales, are you a mindreader?”

_ Mind projector, from a blood moon. _

“Is that why you’re so pale?”

_ I’m not sure and this isn’t important right now. LEAVE. _

The other Nightwings are muttering something about how they agree with him for once, mentioning his name. Lepi. It seems like he isn’t talking exclusively to Lenny, it’s like  _ everyone _ around them can hear him. Well he’s not just going to leave now! He can’t just let these Nightwings have such a bad impression on animus dragons! Then he’ll NEVER be able to convince them of the good he can do.

“I’m perfectly fine staying here! I think it’s quite rude, kicking me out like that.”

_ Leave. _

“You don’t control me!”

_ LEAVE. _

“What if I cast your anger to disappear? Wouldn’t you be  _ so _ much happier?”

**_GET OUT OF MY HOME, ANIMUS._ **

Lenny cringes as the voice gets louder, he’s really mad, isn’t he? Maybe they can talk it out, Lenny’s not putting their lives in danger!-

He gets tackled to the ground by the Nightwing, who’s growling like a wild animal. There was a sloth on his neck, but it seemed too scared to cling on and transferred itself to his Rainwing friend. Lenny doesn’t struggle. If he gives Lepi a sense of power over him, perhaps the other will stop being so scared.

But when he opens his mouth to start breathing fire at him and Lenny  _ has _ to start pushing him away. Turns out he isn’t stronger than Lepi on his own, maybe a little frostbreath will make him back away? Lenny knocks Lepi away with a quick spit in the face, Lepi starts sneezing to get the chill out of his snout. The Nightwings gasp and back away from the two.

_ YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME IF YOU BLASTED THAT INTO MY EYES OR THROAT! _

“Good thing I didn’t want to kill you then. And don’t you dare say anything about frost! You were going to scorch me!”

_ I WAS GOING TO TALK TO YOU! _

“Not while you were growling! And judging from the looks of your friend over there, you _literally_ can’t talk, you’ve stunted yourself thanks to your power. Thankfully, I’ve had a long looong life to learn the basics before I started messing around with _my_ power.”

_ You’re a little STUNTED yourself, you’re smaller than me but you pretend that you’re older. _

“I  _ am _ older! I just don’t have good genes, Mr. Daywing!”

_ Oh just shut up and LEAVE already! _ He threateningly steps closer to Lenny.  _ What are you trying to prove here? What’s the point of wasting your soul and powers on quelling the fears Nightwings have about you? _

“If you have such a problem with it, then kick me out yourself. Or perhaps prove that I’m doing something wrong!”

Another growl.  _ Why do you insist on being so stubborn? I’ve already knocked you down… _ Lenny grins at Lepi, then takes off his necklace. He gently places it on the floor after telling the Nightwings to not break it, or he’ll have to waste more of his soul to make a protection spell.

“Then you’re already riled up, ready to take me on~!”

Lepi cringes so hard Lenny’s afraid that he’ll pop all of his scales off.  _ Never say that again, in that voice, never, you’re going to regret that. _ Then he leaps at Lenny, taking him by surprise. Lenny can barely get out of his claws in order to scratch Lepi back, but Lepi is able to completely avoid him, smirking as if he knew what was coming. Maybe he lied about being a mindreader?

‘Fine then… I’ll make sure you can’t predict me, mind  _ invader. _ Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. FIGHT. FIGHT.  _ FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT. _ ’ Over and over again his head goes, he’ll just need pure instinct. A small part of him keeps saying ‘Don’t use your powers without that necklace.’ It seems to work.

Another slash, this time towards Lepi’s wing, but Lepi tucks it back in as he swings and knocks Lenny away with it. He tries to slam his tail into the Nightwing’s chin as he falls backwards, but Lepi stands on his hind legs to avoid it entirely. This whole time, Lepi hasn’t  _ actually _ fought him, only dodging and parrying.

Lenny rolls back onto his feet and spins to try the tail slam again, it somewhat works! But only because Lepi wasn’t in a place to deflect or escape. He’s still able to fully prepare for it, and block most of the attack with his wing.

‘HOW CAN YOU KNOW EVERYTHING I’M GOING TO DO IN MY CONFUSING HEAD AND WITH A GROUP OF DRAGONS WHO ARE ALSO MOST DEFINITELY THINKING?!’ Lepi doesn’t respond and barrels his entire body into Lenny. Lenny’s shoved off the Nightwing village platform, landing on his back painfully. Now is the time to give up, at least for a few seconds. Lenny starts laughing as the adrenaline refuses to leave him.

“Well, these old bones aren’t going to settle well after this, not without some magical influence at least.”

Lepi glides down to him, holding the necklace.  _ You need this? _

“Yes, I do, since I would prefer  _ not _ laying on the forest floor for… Several hours…” Lepi puts the necklace on him, and Lenny heals his back painlessly. Rolling onto his feet, he shakes his wings out and stares a bit at Lepi. “Now then, you lied about being a mindreader.”

_ No I didn’t. _

“Oh, yes you did! You predicted every move I made! I started thinking “Fight” and “Don’t use magic!” over and over again so you would get confused! And in that  _ crowd _ , too?!”

_ I’m. Not. A. Mindreader. _

“We’ll see about that.” Lenny picks up a leaf and says “Enchant this leaf to make the dragon it’s touching to tell the absolute truth.” Then he places it on Lepi’s snout, who shakes it off and holds it in his paw.

_ I’m not a Mindreader. _

“Oh. That was very unexpected.” Lenny hasn’t been in an actual fight since the war, and even then he was stuck in the castle as Queen Glacier’s assistant. Well, one of them. Perhaps he’s grown rusty, predictable.

_ I just know how to read ACTIONS more than MINDS. _

“Well, that would have been great to know before we started fighting… That was a great show you put on for them and you’ve certainly proved your absolute strength. I think I’ll be on my way, now!”

_ Finally. Go. I believe I saw a Rainwing friend go to the tunnel... that way. _ He points behind Lenny, into the dense forest. Well, he wasn’t wrong, that’s where Lenny  _ came _ from. Lenny bows just to piss Lepi off a  _ little _ bit more, then runs off to the tunnel.

Something comes to mind as Lenny flies back to the Icewing kingdom. Prince Arctic was the last full blood Icewing with animus magic, stolen by the Nightwings. This really could be the only chance they have of getting their powers back. But what if something happens? What if Lenny dies? What if he loses his soul protecting necklace?

What if Huaso removes his animus powers?

No one’s around to hear him… Lenny presses a claw to his own chest, takes a deep breath, and says;

“No matter what happens to animus magic, no matter who gets rid of it, weakens it, or tries to take my own magic… I will always have the full power and potential it has to offer.”

The tingling feelings of his claws spread through his entire body, then it settles, except for in his paws. This is it, this is permanent. He has to make sure Huaso doesn’t regret giving him powers, he has to be useful to his tribe, he has to be responsible with this.

The Ice kingdom is in sight, soon he can take a peaceful nap in his room inside the palace, no one will bother him if they know better than to mess with their only animus.

  
  
  


A week later, he decides to check up on Huaso. Instead, he finds an odd looking Mudwing sticking a sign on the door. The scorpion tail gives away that he actually  _ is _ a hybrid, unlike Lepi, who’s just weird.

“Hello, sir? Where’s the blacksmith?”

The Mudwing does some sort of quacky-huff of surprise, and turns to look at Lenny. Is he daring to bare his tail towards him?

“Oh, he might be dead, I dunno, my brother took him away to an island full of these huge ass rabbits! Sooo if you excuse me, I have some prey to hunt!” Then the Mudwing leaves. That was peculiar, most likely just complete nonsense. Maybe the sign will prove more useful.

‘The blacksmith will be out for an indeterminate amount of time,

Please do not enter the smithy unless permitted by a close friend, who’ll get the word directly from the blacksmith. They’ll be able to give you your commission, as everything has been finished before the blacksmith left.’

Then there’s drawings of a few dragons labeled “Trustworthy.” One of Eddie, Flo, and is that a scavenger’s face?

Well, the Mudwing was right about him being away, Lenny’s still not sure on all those other details. He might as well let himself in, there’s no one to stop him. Maybe Huaso left some animus tips behind for him.

Instead, there’s just a pile of burnt scales…  _ Huaso’s  _ scales…  _ The ones grown with magic. _

It’s not like Huaso’s gonna miss a few burnt scales, or the entire pile for that matter. He’s even cleaning the smithy a bit! Thinking back on the bracelet Eddie has, he avoids taking the green scales. He’s not sure if they’re  _ all _ glowscales, but they’re all shiny enough to attract a dumbass.

He heads back home to study the scales, spreading them out on a desk, and letting a moon globe illuminate the room in a gentle dim light. Just looking at some old scales is pointless, so he decides to experiment with his magic. He picks one of the scales up, and whispers;

“Tell me how much magic you hold in a way that’ll make the most sense to me, you know what I want to hear.”

The scale whispers back, in Huaso’s voice without the accent;

“The only magic I hold is this very enchantment. 26 years ago I had the influence of growth, telling me what color to be and where to grow, latching onto fragile skin. I have been designed to grow with my host, no longer needing extra magic to stay on the dragonet’s journey to adulthood.”

“Poetic! Thank you, go back to how you were before I picked you up!”

Nothing else is said from the scale.

Lenny picks up another one, asking it to tell him how Huaso enchanted them when he was a day old.

“Panic. Pain. Desperation to seem healthier than he was in order to survive.”

“Well, that didn’t work out, huh?”

None of the scales were able to directly say how he enchanted them, what words he used, why he was panicking, nothing. Apparently, scales don’t have a memory that doesn't relate to them and their purpose. Lenny was still able to learn more about Huaso from this, so that’s a plus.

Suddenly, something weird happens… For a second, his claws stop that tingling feeling. Lenny didn’t notice at first, since he wasn’t used to constantly feeling magic anyway. He realized what happened when the feeling came  _ back. _

Did someone… Try to get rid of animus magic?

“By the Great Ice Dragon’s teeth, I can’t believe I timed that so well!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm real bad at writing fight scenes, y'know?


	7. Winglet: Pitiful Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ted's PoV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the brothers officially have Povs of their own!
> 
> Also, this is the last Winglet for arc 1...
> 
> WHICH MEANS I CAN FINALLLY POST THE BAD TIMELINE WITHOUT INTERRUPTION-

“Eddie.”

His older brother slowly lifts his head from the grass and blinks at the youngest brother.

“You don’t need to be miserable just because he’s busy healing.”

Eddie looks back at the lake, then lets his head rest again. He lets out a long sigh.

The moons are reflected on the surface of the lake, revealing the slight red from Huaso’s spot. Ted was surprised that there wasn’t anything in the lake being attracted to the blood, but this island has been at peace for so long that it’s more likely that the animals don’t know blood even is.

Their middle brother was busy feasting on the abundance of large rabbits, leaving the two-  _ Maybe three- _ completely alone at the lake. All Eddie could do was watch the lake, sleep, watch the lake, sleep, again and again. Ted found it weird, his brother was never this quiet. Fred said that he  _ used _ to be like this, just not as depressed about it, then laughed it off as if he’d be fine in the morning.

Ted lays by Eddie, wrapping his long tail around the other’s. Amusingly, it covers  _ all _ of Eddie’s tail, being born just short of the average Sandwing length. Once, the younger brothers wondered if that’s why his venom is weak, since Fred’s is even shorter and he has  _ none, _ but Ted’s is long and he has  _ all _ of it.

Eddie sighs again, for no reason this time. He starts to shuffle  _ away _ from Ted and more towards the lake.

“You’re not going in there, I know you think you’re completely immune, but you’re still Sandwing dominant and who knows what his blood will do to you.”

“I need to make sure he’s breathing-”

“You already did when you put him in the lake, you nearly drowned yourself doing so.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s okay  _ now, _ I have to make sure, I  _ need _ to, I-I... I just…”

He stops completely. Tears spill out of his eyes and down his cheeks, quickly hidden by his front legs. Ted pats Eddie on the back with his wing. How is he getting so worked up about this? Huaso’s perfectly fine, Eddie  _ himself _ made sure of it. Whenever a day passes, there’s this tension that builds up until he just snaps like this.

After a couple of heartbeats, Eddie starts to calm down. Now it’s back to blankly staring at the lake.

Knowing he’s not going to get anything from his oldest brother, Ted decides to find his old _ er _ brother. It’s just a short flight to the opposite end of the island, where the stench of blood is three times as strong and there’s sharp bones littered everywhere. When Ted lands, he has to knock a few away just to make room for his paws.

“Really? You can’t even be bothered to make a nice pile?”

Fred chortles and chews on a rabbit ear. “Of course the first thing you mention is the mess and not the bones themselves. I swear, you’re just, like, _u_ _ sed _ to violent imagery.”

“Living with you for 21 years surely hasn’t helped. Not to mention my hatching day…”

“That too! You’re also a BIG hypocrite! You’re constantly telling Eddie that “Huaso’s fine, don’t worry! He isn’t in pain  _ anymore _ !” but  _ you’re _ still on about killing your sister!” A cruel laugh rips out of his throat. “Who cares? That was 21 year ago. You haven’t killed any siblings since then and you two were hybrids born in the same egg, so it was probably for the best that the weaker one died!”

Ted growls, but shakes the anger out of him. “I should have stayed with the depressed brother.”

“Ah, but he isn’t smart enough to actually hold a real conversation with you!”

“I really don’t get why you’re so mean…”

The youngest still sits with his brother, perfectly content with staying there. They silently watch the sky. Fred will sometimes grab a rabbit that’s hopping by, snap its neck, and start eating it. It was very disturbing so Ted kept his eyes  _ up. _

Then…

“So, Eddie has  _ another _ crush.” Fred mumbles.

Ted lowers his head and sighs. “Apparently so, although my only reference is Sugar, so the fact that he likes  _ Huaso _ is surprising.”

“Because he’s male?”

“Somewhat, I just didn’t know. He doesn’t exactly open up about his sexuality and it never mattered.”

“I remember he had a crush on a dragonet back in the Scorpion Den, maybe a year older than us at the time. He actually reminds me a bit of Huaso, now that I think about it. Of course, he wouldn’t go for a hybrid and he didn’t like that Eddie would correct and outwit him every time he did something stupid.”

“ _ Eddie _ would?”

“Yeah! I told you, he was actually smart before the fall. Well, as smart as a 5 year old could be. He knew the best places to hide during cat and mouse bets, the easiest places to steal from, and most importantly; How to spin dragons on their own heads by giving them endless questions!”

“Hm…”

Ted sometimes wishes that he met Eddie before he was hatched, he was  _ so close _ to meeting that Eddie, too. Why did he even bother leaving his house on his 7th hatching day? He knew there were dragons out to get him. And when you’re an adult, no one can help you, or at least have enough pity to. The Eddie that Fred’s told him about sounds too smart to fall for any reason to jump off one of the highest points of the desert without his wings.

Then again, Eddie was still a dragonet, 7th hatching day or not. He didn’t just magically become mature once he turned into a legal adult. Maybe he made a fatal mistake? Maybe he was hoping that a few dragons would actually like him if he played along for once? Ted’ll never know, himself.

The smell starts getting to Ted, so he bids Fred goodbye and flies back to Eddie.

The sight that greeted him was a little odd and somewhat endearing for his older brother. Eddie was laying  _ in _ the water, but right on its shore so most of his body is still out of it. His wing is clearly folded over something that’s clinging to his tail and being held by Eddie’s front leg.

Huaso’s gills gently intake water and push it out, probably sleeping peacefully. Ted sits in front of Eddie and stares at him for a while.

“You didn’t listen to me, apparently.”

“Well, I don’t feel sick in the slightest, I…  _ Really _ don’t know why, this should be too much even for me, I’m  _ in the source of his sickness. _ ”

“Maybe it’ll get to you if you drink it, so… Don’t do that.”

Eddie rolls his eyes, his face says “As if I’m stupid enough to do that.” while they both know he’s definitely stupid enough to do that. Huaso yawns, a bit of his nose comes out of the water, and he shuffles himself to get further into the sand. A few wings move to get comfortable and the Sea/Sky is back to sleeping.

“He can’t hear us above the water, can he?”

“I’ve tried, apparently not… He said that he can  _ hear _ me, but it’s really muffled, so he can't _understand_ a single word.”

“Great.” Ted lays on the dirt, tucks his wings in, crosses his front paws, and continues to stare at Eddie with a completely blank expression. “You should tell him how you feel.”

The older brother flinches and sticks his head up high like a periscoping snake. He starts muttering and stumbling over words of disbelief. Ted keeps his blank face.

“Y-You know- I- It’s not at  _ all _ what you think-”

“Eddie, you’re getting attached to this guy faster than you did the dragon you  _ could _ have had an egg with, you’re basically risking your life every single day you hang around the guy with the plague. You actually followed a Firescales to a mystery island full of giant rabbits just to have a chance to save his life, even though he hasn’t done anything for you other than play with your feelings since he doesn’t know what you feel. And I guess he gave you a glowscale, but that’s it.”

“...”

Eddie guiltily looks at Huaso. It turns into a longing gaze as the thoughts in his head turn and change into something comprehensible. A sigh, then a tighter hug of the wing.

“... He hasn’t done  _ nothing _ for me…”

“All I’ve heard from you is just that he’s cool and having a good day. I don’t  _ get _ it, you’re risking so much just being with him and he’s not doing the same for you.”

“You don’t know that-”

“I know that you aren’t exactly the  _ safest _ to be around, but at least you aren’t a walking epidemic! Most of your irresponsible actions can be easily fixed. You can’t fix death from illness. Why are you even bothering getting close?”

“Teddy. Shut the fuck up.”

That threw Ted off. He wasn’t yelling, which was pretty weird for him, but it was still just as strict. This was a kind of anger Eddie only used on the dragons that genuinely annoyed him and meant  _ nothing _ to him. Why is he using it on Ted?

“You’re right that  _ he _ isn’t risking much with me just being around, but you’re still amplifying these situations to make it seem like I’m the hero in his story and he doesn’t deserve it. I’m just trying to be  _ kind. _ I wasn’t going to let him die, dumbass, so of course I’m going to fucking follow one of _ his close friends _ if it ensures his survival. I can’t catch or spread his disease, so I’m going to use that to my advantage and make sure he isn’t as lonely as he usually is. I  _ know _ you’re more mature and intelligent than me, Ted… But you don’t know everything and I didn’t lose  _ everything _ I knew.”

Eddie lowers his head to glare holes into the waking tadpoles around his claws, a few turning over as they get too close to Huaso.

“Please… Don’t make him look like nothing to put me on a pedestal, I don’t fuckin’ deserve to be seen as “better” here. Huaso doesn’t deserve to be put down.”

Ted was still shocked. Eventually, he bows his head to start an apology, but can’t find the words. He settles for a simple “Sorry…” and flies to an empty field to sleep the confusion off.


	8. Lost Visions: A little more won't hurt. (1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Various PoVs (Mostly Huaso's.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Literally no one asked for this but I finally have nothing else to post!  
> This is me thinking of the worst things I can write that would fit a "bad timeline" of this AU. Read the tags carefully.
> 
> This takes place a little after the intro of Huaso's backstory, and end years after the main timeline is currently at.

What was his mother talking about?

“I… I’ll take it…”

Was the bright red dragon going to hurt his mother the same way she intended to hurt _him_? Why was mother just going along with her? What was she agreeing to? Would Seahorse get his mother killed because he wanted to survive?

This wouldn’t do at all.

He didn’t feel _powerful_ enough, he couldn’t touch the queen directly, couldn’t affect her from afar… But what if… What if he was close enough to someone _else_ who had much more power than him?

With a gentle touch of his father's claws, Fin’s eyes furrow as he stands. Then he charges towards the queen. Scarlet loses her balance and falls out of the den, sitting high on a cliff to hide the hatchling. She’s able to fly back after catching the wind. But she’s as angry as ever. Fin proudly declares;

“I’m _not_ going to let you execute my wife! I’m _not_ going to let you murder my son! You are not my queen, nor is my mother! We’re going to leave our kingdoms, where _you_ can’t affect us!”

Scarlet roars and tries to grab Fin, but Maroon parries her with her wings, her training as a soldier being put to good use. She looks back at Fin, wondering if he’s making the right choice. But seeing Seahorse delighted at both of them was enough to be convinced.

Maroon and Fin take their son into the skies. Maroon uses her experienced wings to lead the guards away from her family, circling back once she’s lost them. The only place that they thought would help hide their family was the Mud kingdom, they’re close to the ocean to raise Seahorse in his own element and their queen is incredibly kind.

But there’s that look on Fin’s face, the same sort of fear he’s always had whenever he was traveling or when he disobeyed his mother to even have Seahorse. He looks down at the sleeping hatchling in his talons, then _at_ those talons. He turns his head to Maroon.

“Dear… I think Seahorse’s an animus…”

Maroon sighs. “I know. I figured Seawings didn’t magically grow scales, size, and the smarts to glide away from the most unpredictable queen in the entire continent.”

They glide down to the Mudwings, who look on curiously. This would be the start of their new lives, hopefully welcomed by their mutual neighbors, hopefully a good influence on the tiny hatchling with magic powers.

\--

“Dad! Dad!” Seahorse starts bouncing around the den excitedly, carefully holding something in his paws. Fin stretches out and crawls away from his wife’s side, who’s going to sleep until noon.

“What is it, little stallion?”

“I found a really weird thing when I went out treasure hunting!!”

Fin clacks his teeth in a scolding manner. “What have I told you about leaving by yourself? Queen Scarlet or your grandmother-”

“I know I know! Bigwings Swamp was up early this morning, so he helped me hunt!”

Ah, the Mudwing that was the first to accept Huaso as a fellow dragonet of the neighborhood. His sibs accept him purely because they trust the biggest of the group. They were nice dragonets, leading his son down the right path.

“Alright, well… Show me what you caught.”

Seahorse presents Fin with a tiny scavenger, who seems to be perfectly calm sitting in his palms. The scavenger looks up at Fin and crosses its arms.

“Hello.” It says in perfect Dragon. Fin jumps back from it and Maroon lifts her head from the nest.

“What in the moons was _that?!_ ”

“It can speak Dragon!” Seahorse proudly exclaims. “Swamp and I found it sittin’ just outside of the kingdom! And it kept sayin’ hello and stuff!”

Fin lightly taps the scavenger’s head, who huffs and starts crawling out of Seahorse’s claws. “It must have been mimicking dragons, quite the discovery…”

Seahorse looks around to find one of his mother’s talon rings, too big for him, but just big enough to stick onto his horns. He holds it then puts it on. Suddenly, the scavenger starts squeaking at Seahorse… And Seahorse responds.

“It actually worked!! Scavengers have their own language! Oh my goodness!” He pounces onto a still-waking Maroon, who chuckles and gently nudges him off before she gets sick again. The scavenger seems just as surprised as the parents, squeaking and chattering as much as it can.

“Seahorse, did you just-”

“I enchanted the ring to let me communicate with scavengers, yeah yeah Albatross and Fathom yeah I _know!!_ But this is important!! We discovered a species that has as much intelligence as dragons! Who knows? Maybe The Scorching was real!” Seahorse takes the scavenger and starts running to his private den.

Maroon yawns and leans again Fin. “he’s certainly smart for a year old dragonet…”

“Well, I’m proud of that, but he doesn’t take his powers seriously…”

“Which is why we keep an eye on him, the scrolls said Albatross was about 50 before he went insane, right? And he used his powers regularly most of his life.”

“And yet, Fathom’s scrolls talked about a Nightwing named Darkstalker, who went insane when he was only 6… Not to mention, he’s a hybrid, just like Seahorse. And Skywings killed their animus bloodline-”

“Fin, calm down. You’re completely right, but that doesn’t mean he’s a lost cause…”

\--

The war hit the continent _hard,_ the Mudwings were forced to pick a side for something most don't care about. They’re constantly flipping between Blister, allying with the Seawings, or Burn, allying with the Skywings. It always put the family on edge, switching between hiding Maroon, or hiding Fin and hoping the princesses don’t realize what’s happening (Which is near impossible with Blister, so Fin hopes he never has to meet her.)

Seahorse, who decided to rename himself _Huaso_ after an old scavenger word, always had to stay hidden regardless of the alliances. He nearly became nocturnal when he decided to sneak out at night and sleep over with Swamp’s pack. The dragon’s 7 now, so he’s technically an adult and he doesn’t have to listen to his parents, yet he still considers every word they have to share.

Except for when he moved out.

He wanted to start his own blacksmithing business, he’s gotten quite skilled at making metal-based jewelry and even a few weapons when his friends were drafted into the war, so he’s moved into an underground cave system, carving it out and making it as comfortable as possible, with a welcoming opening that gently lead customers down into the main area.

Huaso insisted on his parents moving in with him so they could stick around and continue to grow their resistance to his mysterious plague. He also said it was quite roomy for them and he would even carve out more of the cave to make it fit to their liking. But they said that independence was good for him and they were already nearly immune to his illness. Huaso considered enchanting the claws on their wingtips to at least think about the subject more, but not only was that a little too far for Huaso, he also made them arm braces that completely protected them from any spells from Huaso that weren’t from the braces themselves.

He has, however, enchanted nearly every weapon and piece of armor on request of his Mudwing friends. He’s made a few rules, such as “It can’t instantly kill anyone.” And “You can't be invincible.” Or really anything that makes the war too unfair, Fin said that there’s an unspoken rule about using animus magic in wars. Huaso fully agrees.

At some point, Burn found him and decided to visit, believing that he was simply an impressive Mudwing.

But he wasn’t going to hide.

\--

It didn’t take long for her to try and kill him, in fact it was as soon as she saw him. Now Huaso was flying in circles, outspeeding the Sandwing guards. Eventually he was able to separate them, all of them falling back to Burn to try and get advice, or force her to move on, maybe even steal from his smithy!

But this one…

He keeps flying after Huaso, yelling at him to “Fuckin’ stop!” and to at least slow down enough so they can talk. Once Huaso’s wings get tired, he complies, slowing down just slightly to be within hearing range, at least a hearing range that doesn’t require the Sandwing to tear his lungs out.

“Fuckin’ finally! I’m not going to kill you, dude!”

“Really? Ah dun believe ya, although t’ fact that yer not blastin’ fire is promising.”

“Just listen for a second, I can drive you far away enough so that they can’t find you, then I’ll fly back and tell them that I lost you! It’s completely believable coming from me, I’m the idiot of the group!”

“Clearly not, if ya thought of this plan by yerself.”

“It’s a common troupe in stories, actually, two forbidden lovers conspire together to escape or to save one of their asses… Not that I have a crush on you! I literally just met you! Not that you _couldn’t_ be my crush! Your glowscales are really shiny and-”

“GIT T’ THE POINT?”

“Right, right! Listen, _I’m_ a hybrid, too! Part Mudwing, actually! I just pass so well that Burn didn’t notice, she unknowingly recruited me for my Mudwing strength! So please listen to the plan, I can make sure you’re safe!”

Huaso’s wings start to ache, he’s never been able to fly this much, not with the war going on. So, he listens to the hybrid guard. They fly directly south until the rainforest is right at their feet. They land before entering it, Husao takes a second to breathe.

“You okay?”

“Yeah… Just… Was t’ air always so thin up there??”

“Sure was…”

“Wings above, I’m out of practice… Now, ah don’t see anyone following us, ah think yer good t’ leave.”

“Right, but stay here, I’ll be back with your stuff, Moons know Burn’s probably gonna b- well, you can guess from her name alone.” The guard flies off, leaving Huaso to rest at the edge of the forest.

Huaso waits for a few hundred heartbeats, watching him fade further away.

Another few hundred and he’s gone.

Another few hundred and he’s back, carrying a large bag.

Several more, he lands in front of Huaso again.

He gives Huaso the bag, letting him dig through it to make sure everything’s there. The guard awkwardly sits there, waiting for a response from the other. Eventually, Huaso sighs from relief and wraps the straps of the bag around his front legs.

“Ah’m surprised, ya got everythin’ important, at least, anythin’ that Burn can’t use herself.”

“What would she need small goggles for?”

“Well, that one doesn’t have something important on it fer now, but everythin’ else that seems useless? They have a…” Huaso pauses, wondering if he should make an excuse, or actually tell this guard about his powers. What’s the point of having such power if he doesn’t use it to help dragons? And how can he help dragons if he’s on the run? Maybe it would be nice to have a visitor that might need them…

“Can ya tell me yer name?”

“Eddie, yours?”

“Huaso, formerly Seahorse. Ah trust ya not t’ use this against me, ah just git… That kinda vibe about ya.”

Eddie tilts his head quizzically at Huaso, pawing the bag a bit to get him to continue on about why such weird items are so important.

“... Ah’m an animus.”

Eddie looks shocked for a second, then smiles. “Well, I’ll try to keep quiet about that, although I should have mentioned that I’m… Bad at keeping secrets, not the sharpest claw on the talon.”

Huaso’s the one to tilt his head this time, what does he mean? If he knows that, why would he risk hiding Huaso, essentially knowing where he is? What if he slips up and Burn lights the entire rainforest on fire to find him? Eddie goes on to explain something about falling, then taps his head, where his left horn was broken off… Oh.

“Ah can fix that, if ya want?”

Eddie shakes his head. “No, I guess not until I fuck up _real_ good. Otherwise, my brothers would get suspicious and little Ted hasn’t known me before the accident. It might scare him… Now fly off, I can tell your parents where you are, I’ll probably be able to find them among the Mudwings. I’ll have the time! Burn and my fellow soldiers already left me.”

Huaso nods, leaping into the air and flying into the rainforest as the sun goes down.

\--

Skywing eyes can see incredibly far, but are useless in the dark.

While Seawings have some good night vision, it’s mostly used underwater.

Thus, unless Huaso found a river to sleep in for the night, he was lost in the dark of the rainforest. The sounds here were strange, with nocturnal insects buzzing against his ears. Everything smelled fresh and wild, but it was overwhelming. Every step he took, he had to hope he wasn’t going to step into quicksand whenever something squashed and that he wasn’t stepping on dragon scales for every smooth or sharp surface.

He wants so badly to just enchant something to let him see in the dark, or find him the closest and safest area of water, but without knowing what’s in here, he can’t risk anyone finding his powers. What if he thinks of the enchantment instead of saying it? What if he uses his goggles for his night vision? It’d be like he’s just putting them on to protect his eyes from the bugs.

Although, digging around to find his goggles, he finally steps on something that’s _actually_ scale-like.

“ATTACKER!”

Something corrosive tears into his eyes, melting them and the scales below them as he screams in agony. He rips out his goggles and presses them to his face.

_Stop the bleeding, stop the acid or whatever this is, completely heal my eyes!_

The pain dies down and he adjusts the goggles to stay on his face as he feels his vision coming back. The shock gets to him and he faints, the last thing he hears is a young dragonet yelling “CHERRY!”

\--

The village of the Rainwings got sick.

They got so sick and Huaso didn’t understand why.

The Mudwings never got sick, only his parents did and they grew resistant after a while. Why would a tribe get sick if they weren’t related to him? It didn’t make sense. He made a couple of new friends here and even they got sick.

A pink Rainwing named Strawberry, who welcomed him in, showed him around, fed him when Huaso’s stomach turned away at the thought of eating anything other than meat…

…

_Why am I alive?_

_Why did the moons allow me to live?_

_An abomination._

_A plague._

_A murderer._

_I don’t care about the others. Only him. Only the one who cared about me._

_So why him?_

_Was it because of his pity? Making him stick around?_

_Was I too clingy? Hoping to have a friend who seemed to really care about me in this strange environment?_

_I don’t deserve to be here._

_I don’t deserve to live a long life after cutting his short._

_Oh moons, he was only a year older than me…_

_I need to pay._

_Before my time is up, before I can live to the ripe old age of 150, before I turn 50 even… My scales will block off my gills, take me to the nearest and emptiest lake to drown, they will not allow me to live._

_I need to leave the forest._

\--

He just keeps going around in circles.

Visit his family in the Mudwing kingdom whenever Burn is away.

Fly around the rainforest and stay in the ocean for a week.

Try to find the Seawing’s Summer palace.

Visit Jade Mountain.

Again and again and again. He doesn’t know where he can go, he doesn’t know where he can be safe without risking others. At one point, he stayed with his parents for another 2 years, moping and sleeping the entire time. Then, he got a burst of energy and said that he was going to stay in Jade mountain for a couple of years. So he did. Then on the beach behind the rainforest, then back with his parents, until the war has been going on for 10 years.

When he entered the cave of Jade mountain to move back in, he was tackled by a Mudwing.

“What in t’ world?!”

“Stop right there! What business do ya have with t’ Talons of Peace?!” She was much older than Huaso, even had a few scars on her and must have been directly involved with the war.

“Ai, Asha, that’s enough, he looks thoroughly confused.” An Icewing- A real life Icewing outside of their tundra!- gently pushes Asha off of Huaso. He drags Huaso back to his feet. “I’m sorry about that. We’ve been trying to get Burn off our tails for a while. I’m Hvitur, this is Asha as you know. What are you doing in Jade Mountain?”

Hvitur has a few scars on him, too, although his exposed flesh isn’t pink like Asha’s, or stained red from blood, they’re a deep blue. Huaso snaps out of his expositional thoughts and greets them properly.

“Ah’m Huaso. Normally ah hide out here fer maybe 2 years, then move… Someplace else. There ain’t much ah can go to.” The older dragons look at him weirdly, as if they just discovered that he was a hybrid. Hvitur scoffs then walks further into the caves where some sort of light source is. Asha sits by Huaso.

“Yer Fin and Maroon’s kid, ain't ya?”

Huaso’s eyes widen in surprise. “Ah… Yeah, ah am. Ya know them?”

“Indeed ah do! They’re always goin’ on bout yer traveling habits, how yer always havin’ this sad look on yer face… Oh, ah think ah’ve said too much-”

“Ah don’t care, ah ain’t gonna hide how ah feel just t’ make ‘em think ah’m perfectly fine with bein’ hunted by t’ most ruthless dragon on t’ continent…”

They sit in silence, Asha watches Huaso’s face. His eyes are hooded by the darkness of the cave and he just sits there without emotion. Eventually, she grabs a stick and coughs a bit of fire onto it, making a torch. She clears her throat to get Huaso’s attention.

“Would ya like t’ hear about the Talons of Peace? More importantly… Why we’re hiding in Jade mountain?”

\--

That stupid bar song was never going to leave his head. It was just the same phrase over and over again!

“The dragonets are coming!”

“Ai, Asha! Stop singing th-”

“They’re coming to save t’ day!”

“Ah agree with Hvitur, it ain’t that good-”

“They’re coming to fight fer they know what’s right!”

“ASHA!”

“THE DRAGONETS, HURRAY!”

Hvitur and Asha weren’t the only ones in Jade mountain, and certainly not the only ones in the Talons of Peace. However, Webs, Kestrel, and Dune are preparing their eggs for Brightest night, hidden under the Skywing’s kingdom. Huaso stuck around, apparently timing his move to end around Brightest night. Once everyone is able to confirm that they got their eggs into the hiding spot, Huaso is free to go, now that he knows he hasn’t missed any action.

Plus, it’s fun to hear what his parents have been doing while he was away, apparently Asha’s pretty good friends with them. Speaking of Asha…

“Ah can’t believe my own nephew is a Dragonet of Destiny! Blood egg hatchin’ on Brightest night! Oh ah couldn’t be prouder!”

Hvitur does his usual scoff. “And all it took for Cattail to give one of her children away to hide in a mountain forever… Was selling him for two cows. That’s what she can eat in a _day!_ ”

“Oh hush, Icewing! At least _my_ tribe is part of t’ prophecy! Ah can’t _believe_ Kestrel isn’t even gonna try gittin’ her Skywing egg!”

“Which means _I_ have to risk my own scales for _her_ egg, what, she loses two little dragonets and suddenly she’s _angry_ at the prophecy? She’s just mad that her own twins weren’t part of it, two dragonets in one egg… Must have been, oh I don’t know, the _biggest egg in mountain high?_ ”

“Ah mean that more in a way of “Wow she would be able t’ sneak in much more easily than an Icewing would.” But ya took it as “WOW HOW CAN SHE BE SO ANGRY AFTER LOSIN’ HER ONLY TWO DRAGONETS?!”

“Your sister sold her son for _TWO COWS!_ ”

Huaso groans loudly and stomps out of the cave, deciding to wait for the signal to send Asha out to get the blood red egg. Low and behold, there’s Dune running past Jade Mountain, a three legged dragon using his front pouch to carefully hold the Sandwing egg. There really was an egg just left behind in the desert?

“ASHA, YER UP!”

In an instant, Asha is gliding down towards the Mud kingdom, whooping with glee. The three full moons aren’t showing quite yet, giving the dragonets more time to gather. However, Asha’s cutting it incredibly close.

While it would make sense for her to just head straight to the Sky kingdom, safely dropping off the egg, she still would have been seen heading _back_ at this point, even from an extreme distance.

“Something’s wrong…”

“Then I’m not waiting for her, while I’m gone, check the back caves for a weird sound, I’m scared Blister or Burn found our hideout and is waiting for the dragonet eggs there.”

“Got it. Go, before Brightest night is gone fer good.”

Hvitur flies to the Sky kingdom, thankfully having the shortest travel time out of all the eggs, so he should be able to make it. Huaso listens to the Icewing’s request and carefully starts heading towards the deeper caves. He grabs an unlit torch from the wall and enchants it to stay lit as long as he needs it to, saying the words out loud to possibly scare the Sandwing princesses off. If the dragonets had an animus, then surely they would know better than to mess with them?

Instead, there’s a scared “No no no no” from a grown male dragon. Huaso walks deeper into the caverns until he comes across a… Completely black dragon, maybe a year or so younger than Huaso, but parts of his scales are turning gray and losing their shine like stone.

 _Because he’s_ actually _turning to stone!_ Huaso brings the torch closer and the dragon tries to back up a bit, but stops when Huaso doesn’t burn him.

“Who are ya?”

“I-I’m Stonemover, a Nightwing- Oh, I’ve heard you enchant the torch, you’re allowed to know- I’m an animus!”

 _Another animus?_ Huaso thinks. _Curious…_

“Did another animus curse ya? Yer turning to stone.”

He waves his claws, the stone crawls up his spine and he’s forced to lay down to stay comfortable. “Oh no no! I uh… Did this to myself… I know I’m losing my soul, so I enchanted myself to turn the loss of my soul into the loss of my scales! So I’ll be perfectly sane and fine and safe just… I won’t be able to move anywhere… Not with all I’ve done…”

“What.. _Did_ ya do?”

“Well… I might have made a couple of tunnels from the Night kingdom to the rainforest and the rainforest to Burn’s fortress?” He says this as if it’s the absolute worst thing a dragon can do. Tunnels? Really? That seems quite useful, actually, tunnels could speed up the travel time across the continent, why doesn’t Huaso do that now that Stonemover’s going to turn into a statue?

“That’s it? Buddeh, ah’ve been usin’ my magic casually all mah life, before ah turned a day old, in fact! Ah’m perfectly fine. A couple’a tunnels aint gonna hurt ya.”

“But look at the evidence! I’m turning nearly completely to stone! I already can’t move my back legs! If I haven’t done as much as you and I’ve already lost so much… What if that’s what you _want_ to think?! Every single time I look at my talons, I don’t think of them as my own, I see them covered in blood and death and pain and stONE!-”

“Listen, bud, that ain’t happenin’ t’ me. All ah see when ah look at mah talons or whatever, is just a sick bastard with a bit of power… The fuck’s going on with the rhyming?”

“Please, at least consider what I’ve said! Protect your soul! Keep yourself safe! Stop using your magic!”

“Ah don’t think ah’m just gonna give all that up.”

“Then leave before I hurt you, too…”

Huaso shrugs and heads back to the mouth of the cave, looking for a place to fly off. He feels a little more confident in his abilities lately, maybe he could risk exploring the desert? He could probably just get the princesses sick if they went anywhere near him,. After all, that’s why Dune had to stay away from him!

He’ll just have someone send a letter to his parents if he ends up staying there for too long.

\--

“Well, who would’a thought ya were here?”

“A friend of mine said you moved to Possibility, so I _had_ to make sure it was true…’

Eddie found his way to Huaso’s new smithy, sitting on a few pillows as Huaso gets everything set up for his first opening tomorrow. To make sure it’s absolutely perfect, he commands every anvil to spark beautifully as he works with the metal, every fire to stay the perfect temperature, and of course, every pillow Eddie touches to fit his personal tastes no matter how it was made.

“Well, here ah am! Hey, ya still aint’ working for Burn, are ya?”

“No way, I bailed out maybe 8 years ago? Quite literally, actually, I may have pissed her off for the rest of her life…”

“Join t’ club!”

Once everything is finished, Huaso sits by Eddie, curling his tail around the other. He’s missed physical touch, even though Asha and Hvitur were ( _were_ , he thinks with a tinge of sadness, but it’s quickly gone. _They did their jobs, anyway._ ) completely immune to Huaso, they weren’t the touchy kind of dragons, even with Asha being soft hearted.

Eddie lifts up one of Huaso’s paws to stare at it. “Have I ever said that your scales were like treasure?”

“Ah think ya said that ‘bout 12 years ago, yeah.”

“Damn, it’s really been that long? Most dragons start having eggs when they’re 10, yet here we are, 20-ish years old…”

“Eh.” Huaso shrugs. “Honestly, ah don’t git the agin’ process, adults at 7, yet we can live t’ nearly 200 years? That’s a lot of time t’ develop and wait on eggs."

“Well, we never stop growing!”

“That’s true.”

They just sit like that for a while longer, with Eddie still inspecting Huaso’s claws. Just as a little reminder of their power, he let’s Eddie feel the same tingling feeling they have whenever he’s holding them. It’s a little surprising at first, then he laughs and says that they tickle a bit. Really? Not when you have them for 20 years, apparently.

Huaso’s not sure what this feeling is, it’s… _Stronger_ than anything else. Well, that’s not true, but it’s the strongest feeling he’s had towards other dragons for a long time, even his own parents.

Whatever it is, it makes Huaso happy. Eddie seems to be happy, too.

That’s all that could ever matter.

\--

6 years have gone by, or rather, 6 and a half. The war is ending early thanks to a few dragonets deciding that they were ready to escape their little cave and change the world.

Huaso and Eddie meet up at the arena the night the “fourth moon” shines in the sky, a giant comet that rocks the entire Earth. Huaso insists on sitting with the crowd of Mudwings to make sure no one gets sick and ruins the final moment of the war.

Eddie’s a bit awkward around them, but they’re all too focused on the three queens arriving at the arena. The arena wasn’t built for fighting, in fact, the whole reason the dragonets brought them there was to stop fighting in general. It was actually the monument to Queen Oasis, the poor Sandwing Queen that died to three scavengers, starting the war. Huaso’s sure Zach had the power to kill a queen if he’s really as smart as a dragon, so he’s one of the few that actually believed it.

Burn got there first. She scans the dragonets, then the crowd. Her dark eyes stop on Huaso and Eddie.

“Oh no-”

“Ah won’t let her get ya, Ed, or yer brothers.”

She points at Huaso and curls her claw inwards, trying to drag him into the arena. If it leaves Eddie out of the picture, that’s fine by him.

“Ah’ll be right back.”

He swiftly glides down, hearing a few gasps from the Mudwings, were those the voices of his parents up there?

“Hybrid… I’m surprised you didn’t die out there earlier.”

“Ah’m full of surprises. Now, what do ah have t’ do with this whole war? If ah recall, ah didn’t take part in it aside from being a simple blacksmith fer my Mudwing friends?” A few different tribes gasp, curious about his Seawing half being with the Mudwings.

“This isn’t about the war… So I assume it’s safe to do _this_ before my sisters arrive!” She grabs Huaso’s neck and holds him up high, striking his back leg with her scorpion tail. Huaso chokes on air and goes limp. Burn drops him.

“Hmph, figured, your weak hybrid blood wouldn’t be able to take the poison, even from the leg.” She looks to the scared dragonets, well, 2 terrified, 2 angry, and 1 blind. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I killed some random hybrid, especially with a stab to the leg instead of the heart or head?” She projects loud enough to the crowd.

The crowd starts to roar, some in anger, some in support, some in _extreme anger,_ such as Huaso’s mother and boyfriend.

“I’m making sure I don’t ruin its looks, a simple leg scar can be easily overlooked compared to a hole in the chest… I’m going to gut this hybrid, display it as a reminder to those who marry outside their own tribes! They simply bring about these deformed creatures that _dare_ call themselves dragons!”

Huaso still has an eye open, pointed towards his lover. If his parents are hidden within that crowd of Mudwings, then to them as well. He grins, although it’s not a comforting smile, it’s sinister and he clearly has an idea. If one looked closely at him, they could see the poison traveling up his leg, spine, and snout.

They would also see him lightly wagging his tail against the sand as his eyes spiral into a blobbing mixture of yellow and red.

The hybrid starts to stand, the crowd gasps again. While Burn starts to shout at them about her reasons for killing Huaso, the hybrid himself leaps onto her neck and bites as hard as he can. Three more dragons land in the arena as Huaso jumps away from Burn’s suffering body, dying from her own venom, enhanced by Huaso’s plague.

“Well then,” Blister starts, with a slick and deep voice. “This isn’t quite what I planned for my sister, but that just wastes less time…” Huaso flies back to Eddie, grinning as blood drips down his teeth. Blister looks at the army Burn brought her, staring at a box a soldier is carrying.

“Oh, you can drop that now, there’s two dragonbite vipers in there. I was hoping she would only think there was one, kill it and have the other inside bite her! They’re quite useless now~.” The soldier drops the box after lighting it on fire. One viper manages to escape while the other burns, now there’s a venomous snake loose in the arena.

Huaso tunes out the rest of the commotion, yawning as if he was bored and tucking himself under Eddie’s wing.

\--

“ **BRING EVERY ANIMUS DRAGON IN PYRRHIA TO ME!!** ” Darkstalker shouts.

Huaso sighs, tossing his cards back to Lenny, who decided to visit the Burn-killer.

“See ya in a bit, hopefully.”

“Bring back my animus p-” Then Huaso was in a room with 5 other animus dragons, Darkstalker, Jerboa II, Stonemover, Turtle, and Anemone. He only knows their names thanks to a necklace that tells them the identities of every dragon he sees. Good thing he was wearing it today, thinking Lenny was going to drag him to some fancy Icewing party to convince him to give him powers.

One of these days, he might join voluntarily, just because he’s bored.

Jerboa and Darkstalker are the only two that notice he’s there, Darkstalker sends him back home.

“So? What happened?”

“Giant Nightwing said “Fuck off” basically, nothing interestin’ fer ya.”

“DARKSTALKER?!”

“Yep.”

“I HAVE TO GO.” And he’s out the door.

So much for their card game.

\--

Queen Glacier is dead. From a plague. An animusly brought plague.

So of course, Lenny is visiting the _living incarnation of pestilence_ to beg for powers so he could prevent this and serve his new queen, Queen Snowfall.

“Fine, sure, whatever.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, yer fuckin’ queen died prematurely, it was unfair! Fire with fire and all…”

“Isn’t that used negatively?”

“Eh.”

Without another word, Huaso touches Lenny’s chest and gives him animus powers.

“There, now fuck off and do whatever ya like, _ah_ got a date with Ed later.”

\--

“Huaso!!!”

Eddie bursts into the closed smithy, in the middle of the night, holding a green and red egg for some reason. Huaso is scared awake and falls out of his nest, he starts scrambling to meet with Eddie in the middle of the floor.

“What, what? Why do y- Ed, did ya steal an egg?”

“No!! I was visiting Lepi because he said that there was an abandoned egg- well, _basically_ an abandoned egg- that would hatch really really soon and the Skywing father was like “I don’t want to raise this dragonet of a Rainwing even though I’m the one who decided I was perfectly fine mating with a Rainwing!” and the Rainwing mother was like “Yeah we just put our eggs in a group and let them hatch on their own I don’t even know who my own mom is” But Queen Glory was like “Well I’m not going to have this! I’ve already implemented a law that required every Rainwing egg to be adopted by either a relative or caring dragon, since the Nightwings look out for their own children” And Lepi was like “Now hold on a dang second I know a dragon who wants an egg” And-”

“Eddie, please, shut up fer a heartbeat… Ya adopted a hybrid egg?”

“Y… Yeah… I didn’t wait to tell your or anything, I came straight here from the tunnel and-”

“Let me hold it.”

Eddie passes the egg to Huaso, he gently cradles it in his arms, already hearing the light taps of her trying to escape. Huaso was sure the egg was female.

_You’ll be completely immune to every illness I have, just like your father, Eddie._

All of a sudden, it starts to crack.

“HUASO!”

“Oh, ah didn’t think she was _that_ close t’ hatching, ah’m guessing they couldn’t find anyone willin’ to adopt a hybrid fer a while?”

A green slick hatchling head pops out of the shell, she starts yelling and clawing at her shell. Huaso gently rests her on the ground. Eddie has a determined look in his eyes.

“Ed, what are y-”

Eddie starts helping her out of the shell.

“EDDIE WH-”

“This is my last chance, and who knows, being a hybrid... It’s better to help her now, when she’s clearly alive and breathing and _ready._ ”

Huaso couldn’t quite argue with that. Well, he could if he wanted to, but he wasn’t going to ruin this moment for Eddie. The hatchling seems perfectly fine with him helping, too. Soon, there’s a green Rainwing trying to crawl up Huaso’s arm, her larger scales flashing a dull red. Huaso wasn’t able to figure out much of the colors for Rainwing emotions, but red wasn’t good.

“Huaso, what’s she doing?”

“Changin’ her scales, ah don’t think she can camo yet or consciously change to her preferred colors, so she’s just sprouting her emotions…”

Despite the red, she seems incredibly giddy, squealing with joy as Huaso lifts her up to inspect her a bit more.

“Or that’s just her Skywing half shinin’ through…”

\--

The hatchling, named Lilla after the lily flowers Huaso’s fond of in the rainforest, _had_ to hatch at the worst time.

A couple of months later, a mysterious tribe came to Pyrrhia, escaping their own continent from some kind of wild hive mind. About a week after that, the hive mind found a way _here._ Thousands upon thousands of buzzing Hivewings swarmed the desert sky, working as one single unit.

Huaso had to escape Possibility, it would be a massive target for the hive mind, too many different dragons around for it to test all of their abilities. They had to go someplace the Hivewings wouldn’t be able to survive in.

The visiting Leafwings came in through the Ice kingdom, Huaso could protect his family and bring them there! He might have enough time to find his parents, too. Maybe he could distract them from the panic by presenting their lovely granddaughter to them! He could bring Eddie’s brother’s and father, too. Maybe Zacharie? Although he wasn’t too pleased with staying around Huaso after he squashed an annoying scavenger that tried to slay him.

First things first, the furthest family members, time to visit the Mud kingdom.

\--

It was an odd flock of various dragons and hybrids, but Huaso and Eddie managed to grab everyone before the hivemind got past Possibility. The family reunion isn’t what anyone imagined, but it turns out everyone is quite delightful and didn’t mind being a family thanks to Eddie and Huaso.

Save for Fred, who “joked” about eating the “dead weight” that was Lilla, but a quick snarl from both boyfriends shut him up for the rest of the trip.

Before they enter the tundra, Huaso stops them midair.

“Ah gotta enchant all of yer scales t’ protect ya from t’ cold _and_ the dangerous Great Ice Cliff, if ya didn’t have an ounce of Icewing blood, y’all die! Ah’m considerin’ if Albatross had Icewing blood, which is how he got his powers, so ah dunno if ah can git through without an enchantment..”

“Better safe than sorry!” Python yells. Fin and Maroon look at each other for a while, then Fin flies up to Huaso.

“Oh! Great! Yer ready!”

“Not quite… Son, are you really sure you want to use this much power? Enchanting someone’s entire person? 8 dragons? You’d be canceling out a different animus gift!”

“I agree with your father, the Pantalans don’t know how to survive snow, the Leafwings were lucky enough to have Queen Snowfall’s mercy, so they didn’t have to survive in a wild tundra. We should stay on the edge, far enough in that we don’t encounter the hivemind, but nowhere near the Ice Cliff.”

Huaso looks at her dejectedly. “That’s still a big risk… Ah’d waste as much of mah soul as ah need t’ keep my only loved ones safe- andEddie’sfamily.”

Fred and Ted awkwardly wave, while Python starts picking at the edges of the box on his head.

Eddie swoops in. “It’ll be a permanent thing, so we don’t have to worry about how often we cross the cliff. Even then, Huaso’s been using magic all his life and he’s still perfectly fine!”

Ted quietly mumbles “He still bothers spreading a plague without care…”

Eddie shoots a glare. “EITHER. WAY. This is the safest thing we can do right now.”

Huaso’s parents eventually give in, letting Huaso enchant their scales to protect them from anything the Ice kingdom has to offer. The Great Ice Cliff, the cold temperatures, anything that could kill them just for entering the kingdom.

Next was Lilla, Eddie, his brothers, and Python. Huaso saved himself for last.

Huaso wraps his hatchling tighter in her blankets and harness, gently passes her to Eddie, hoping his natural heat will get her to sleep through the trip. They fly further and further into the kingdom, the tundra turns into hills, then mountains, then there it is… The Great Ice Cliff. A completely flat wall of ice humming with an energy that puts the entire family on edge.

Fred flies ahead first, having no fear. He’s perfectly fine. Then Ted goes ahead, making sure Eddie’s watching him carefully so he doesn’t hurt the hatching just by bumping into a tree or something. Then all three parents.

Huaso grabs Eddie’s claw and helps him up the cliff, keeping an eye on Lilla. On the other side, everyone’s waiting, alongside an Icewing.

“Lenny?”

“Hello, Huaso. And other random dragons inside the Ice kingdom without being an Icewing.”

Huaso and Eddie land, Huaso carefully steps up to Lenny. “What are ya doing here? Waitin’ fer us?”

“I figured the only other animus I know would be escaping the hive mind by using his powers. Speaking of, did you know animus magic is gone? How did you get here?”

Huaso sighs. “Ah… Enchanted myself t’ keep it regardless of t’ circumstances.”

“I’ll be honest, me too. I guess there’s still two animus that can get rid of this threat.”

Huaso blanches at Lenny. He shakes his head wildly. “No way! Ah’m good out here, if ah fuck up a single spell, ah’m dooming us all. Ah’m content finding a nice empty cave t’ live in until the braver dragons git rid of t’ problem.”

“So you’re just going to waste away here while dragons DIE?!”

“... Yeah. Listen, ah ain’t doing _shit_. All that matters is that mah family is completely safe fer the rest of their days!”

“...” Lenny lifts himself into the air, aiming to head over the cliff.

“I guess I’ll be the one who saves them from your lack of empathy. This time around.”

“This time?”

But he’s gone.

\--

Two years have passed.

The hivemind is still out there.

Lenny has given up on trying to help, finding it impossible to find the right spells that would get rid of the Othermind without killing the innocent dragons. Or rather, he was worried about doing too big of a spell that would help _everyone._

_Coward._

Lilla has grown to be a lot like a smart Eddie, having such a big variety of dragons around her has made her knowledgeable about many tribes she would normally be secluded from if she was raised with her biological parents. She wasn’t originally an animus, of course, but Huaso was worried for the bloodline of animus dragons if animus magic really was gone naturally… Perhaps gifting his child would start a tradition between animus dragons!

However, Huaso also did something that he wished he could do for himself now, if he listened to Stonemover, or even if he listened to his own father years before…

He completely protected her soul, recognizing that his was truly gone.

She didn’t use her magic often, which is probably a good thing. Instead, if she was in a bad situation, she would rely on her naturally gifted teeth.

She could shoot venom like a Rainwing, but she could also breath fire. Soon, she was able to control how she combined the two. If she used both at the exact same time, she could make some kind of bomb that would explode once the fire completely engulfed the venom!

At some point, Lilla asked to visit the rest of the continent, saying it would be good for her to understand what’s going on and why they had to stay in the wrong environment.

Huaso agreed, but only if Eddie came along, as well as Lenny.

\--

“Wow wow wow!” Lilla was gliding across every rainforest tree she could. Apparently the rainforest was treated as the Leafwing’s “Poison Jungle.” A few Leafwings with some plant-based abilities made the rainforest basically impenetrable. Well, as long as you ignore the desert tunnel, which is heavily guarded apparently!

Good thing they believed that they weren’t taken over by the hivemind, Lilla might have never been able to go back to half of her true home.

The dragonet explores every tree and eats every fruit she can, playing with another Rainwing hybrid about a year older than her. Eddie breathes in warm air for the first time in 2 years, and Lenny complains about how gross and wet the rainforest is.

Huaso, meanwhile, is getting Leafwings and Rainwings absolutely sick. Turns out, disease spreads faster when you don’t have _any_ natural resistance to it, since it originates in a completely different continent. Huaso refuses to move from his comfy sun-filled spot, however, no matter how many Leafwings yell at him, with another group of Leafwings complaining about the loud “Poisonwings.”

Eventually, they just learn to leave him alone and tend to the already sick.

Huaso wakes up from a nap with Lenny staring at him.

“Woah there.”

“Really? Now you’re going to be a CAUSE of death!”

Huaso waves a claw. “Nah, they’ll git sick fer a while, but once ah’m back home, they’ll be fine.”

“That’s what you think…” Lenny takes a stick and shoves it into Huaso’s talons. “Hold this and follow me, this makes everyone around you immune as long as you hold it.”

The other animus shrugs and follows Lenny to the hospital, where several Leafwings were coughing their lungs out, bleeding from the eyes, and some of them… Were getting covered with their sheets and getting escorted out.

“Wow… Ah did this?”

“YES. YOU DID. Now keep a hold of that stick until we’re back home. I heard they figured out to make dragons immune to falling under the Othermind’s control, so we don’t need you killing dragonets when they’re fre-” He’s interrupted by the snap of a stick.

“Ya can’t control what ah do with myself. If they git sick, they git sick.” Then Huaso leaves.

“You really are a lost cause…”

\--

Three years pass, the Othermind is nowhere to be seen and Huaso has moved back to his smithy. He moved a few things around to fit his husband and dragonet, but it’s comfortable.

Mostly.

Everyone avoided the smithy like a plague, mostly because they got it whenever they entered it. Huaso wouldn’t care, he knows his husband and daughter are safe to leave, so he has no reason to isolate all of them.

Huaso keeps saying that he can provide their little family with anything they needed, so who cares about those other dragons? Who cares if they didn’t learn their lesson? He’s not moving.

Queen Thorn tried to confront him, but a little “accident” happened, so she had to be sent back to her palace before she could even reach his door.

Who cares? He’s just existing, is that such a crime?

Jerboa II tried to confront him, but all of her yelling did nothing to change Huaso’s mind. She was revealed to be the one to get rid of animus magic and tried to shame him for still using it.

Who cares? She’s in the wrong for getting rid of his power, or at least trying to!

Lenny enters the smithy, wearing a necklace with one circle on it, choosing the day Lilla is at JMA and Eddie is out hunting.

“We need to talk, meet me in the empty desert just west from here.”

\--

All Lenny did was gently touch Huaso’s shoulder and say.

“I’m going to kill you, now.”

While Huaso was shrugging, he could hear the voice of his husband yell “NO!!” And slam into Lenny’s side. Lenny flips himself back up and flies off, being chased by Eddie. The Sand/Mud kept blowing fire at him, but he couldn’t catch up. Maybe that necklace improved his flight speed?

He could hear them arguing in the air.

“MURDERER!”

“Listen to REASON you giant idiot!”

“YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HUASO!”

“For a good reason! He’s allowed innocent dragons die, you idiot! How could you ever love-”

“HOW FUCKIN’ DARE YOU! HE’S JUST EXISTING! HE’S GIVEN YOU POWERS, HE’S KEPT US SAFE, HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU ABLE TO MURDER HIM LIKE THAT?!”

“I’m not the one who’ll kill him!”

Eddie stops. “What?”

“No, I couldn’t, I don’t have any way to. I detected what magic he used for himself, he made himself invincible until his.. _Own_ time comes. He’s making sure he at least lives long enough- without sudden interruption- that Lilla leaves the nest…”

“Then… Who-”

“You will.”

\--

Something was wrong, there was no doubt about it. Lilla had to leave class suddenly- angering her history teacher, Webs- she starts flying towards her home, only taking maybe a quarter of a day with her Sky wings.

It was completely empty, dad and pops were out, but pops _shouldn’t_ be, he never leaves the smithy.

Her claws tell her to fly west.

And there they were, Lenny is being chased by dad, who keeps saying that he doesn’t want to kill pops, why would he kill pops? It looks like Lenny is encouraging him to. Pops, meanwhile, is resting on the sand, completely bored.

“I made sure he could die by fire! Making it very easy to kill him because of how dangerous his smithy is-”

“I’M NOT KILLING MY FUCKIN’ HUSBAND!”

Pops pipes up and tilts his head to the air. “Fer the record… Ah wanna die! Ain’t’ nothin’ else t’ do and ah just cause sufferin’ anyway… ‘Sides, ah’m gonna be dead the night before mah 50th hatching day! Drowned in a lake, ah only got a few more years, why waste them?”

This shocked everyone within hearing range. Did pops really wanna die? Was he actually upset about making other dragons sick?

His eyes look tired, but Lilla can see something more…

He’s… _tired,_ tired.

The little bit of the soul he has left is depressed by the fact that he’s killed so many dragons because he refused to care.

He’s done…

Lilla was scared, she didn’t want to lose pops, but she knows the weight of the situation, and she knows that keeping him alive would just make him suffer…

While Lenny and dad glide back down to him, Lilla readies her fire… And spits.

\--

He’s gone, he’s really gone.

Lilla, _my own dragonet-_ No, she’s just a dragonet, she didn’t know better. She must have overheard Lenny.

_Lenny._

_You could have healed him, you could have fixed his soul since you had so much of it left._

_This is your fault._

_I’m going to fucking kill you._

\--

He didn’t want to orphan someone today, or ever, really. A part of him hoped that Eddie would understand once the deed was done, but he understood that he never could. There might have been a time when Lenny would have reacted the same way.

To save his own life, he killed Eddie with his frostbreath. Maybe he should have let himself die, two animus with one family, but that instinctual fear was too quick, too powerful.

Lenny carefully turns to face Lilla, who has tears spilling out of her eyes, the goggles Huaso gave her were lifted onto her horns so she could let the tears fall freely. He takes a gentle step towards her, then again, and again, until he’s able to hold her claws while she cries into his cold wings.

She’ll learn to be better, Fin can raise another animus and teach her right. He’ll come by to help.

“You’ll never end up like your fathers, I’ll make sure of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a sequel in the works
> 
> Because everyone needs a little more angst d:)


End file.
